SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — A local man’s murder is featured in a new Netflix documentary series.
It’s called “Murder Mountain.”
“He was just the best,” said Bonnie Taylor. “Funny, smart, loving, kind.”
Taylor is the aunt of Ocean Beach resident Garret Rodriguez.
His death is at the center of Netflix's hit six-episode docu-series “Murder Mountain.”
“I was worried what was going on up there,” said Taylor. “I was trying to call him. [I] couldn't get ahold of him. I was worried what was going on up there.”
Rodriguez was reported missing, but after what some considered a lack of action, eight Alderpoint residents confronted the man they believed was the suspect.
They shot him in the leg and arm and forced him to take them to the body.
Soon after an anonymous call alerted deputies who found Rodriguez buried in a shallow grave.
“We know all of them and they are all really good people,” said Taylor. “They just took it into their own hands to get the confession and to get her son's body back.”
So far, no one is in custody.
"I think it's pretty obvious what happened and who did it and who witnessed it,” said Jonathan Chinn.
Chinn is the executive producer of “Murder Mountain.”
“It seems people have found it and [it] has sparked a conversation, which in our line of work is fulfilling,” said Chinn.
But part of that conversation is backlash about how deputies handled the investigation.
The department posted a lengthy response to the series on Facebook saying both the county district attorney and U.S. attorney declined to file charges because of a lack of evidence.
They also called the story highly sensational.
“Having shown the series to them and them seeming to be happy with it, [we were] a little surprised that they maybe went down the road of describing the show as ‘overly sensational,’” said Chinn.
Rodriguez's murder is still under investigation.
“Ultimately, he was engaged in illegal activity clearly, but that what happened to him is unjust and not to forget the pain and suffering that his family has been put through,” said Chinn.