The case began with a vanished Theodore household and turned into a multijurisdiction homicide investigation stretching from Mobile County into Baldwin County.
SUMMERDALE, Ala. — The search for Aurelia Choc Cac and her two children ended in a wooded lot off Downing Road, where investigators said they found the family buried together after weeks of hoping the mother and children had been taken but might still be alive.
That long stretch between disappearance and recovery shaped the case as much as the charges that followed. Deputies first treated the matter as a missing-family emergency after the Theodore household vanished in late January. By the time authorities announced the body recovery in March, the search had drawn in the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, FBI personnel, Homeland Security investigators, K-9 teams and digital analysts. Officials now say the case is a triple homicide, and prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty against the accused man.
The family at the center of the case was small and easy to picture in plain terms: a 40-year-old mother, a 17-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old boy. Investigators said Aurelia Choc Cac, Niurka Zuleta Choc and Anthony Garcia Choc were last seen on Jan. 30 at their home in Theodore. When deputies checked the residence, they did not find signs of forced entry. They did, however, find signs that something violent had happened inside. Officials said there was blood in the home, evidence of a struggle and unusual absences that stood out immediately, including a missing mattress and clothes hamper. The family’s phones and cash were left behind. In the early days, that mix of details made the house itself the first witness in the case.
Searchers then began to work outward. A suspicious black van seen at the home in the early morning hours after the family vanished became one of the first major clues. Investigators said they spent days tracking video before linking the vehicle to the man later charged in the case. On Feb. 10, authorities announced kidnapping charges and said the suspect had been stopped in Bay Minette, fled into nearby woods and was later found hiding under a house. Even then, the search message stayed focused on rescue. Sheriff Paul Burch said the goal was still to find the family and bring them home safely. That public posture held even as officials acknowledged they had blood evidence and believed the victims had been taken from their home against their will.
As the days passed, the search became broader and more technical. FBI officials said the bureau had used tactical specialists, evidence response teams, digital and cellular analysis and canine resources. Local deputies kept working the physical landscape while investigators studied property ties and personal connections. Aurelia and the accused man, according to authorities, had both worked as painters. Officials also disclosed other relationships around the family, including ties to relatives and employers, but the central problem remained unchanged: no one could say where the missing mother and children were. The tension in the case came from that gap between what investigators feared and what they could yet prove.
The answer, when it came, was final. Authorities said they returned to an area linked to the suspect and found three bodies buried in a lightly wooded lot in Summerdale on March 11. The bodies were wrapped in plastic and bedding. At first, investigators said jewelry recovered with the remains made them believe they had found the Choc family. Later, they said forensic work confirmed the identities. District Attorney Keith Blackwood said the findings were gruesome. Investigators have said all three victims were killed with an edged weapon, and that Anthony suffered sharp-force trauma to the head while Aurelia suffered injuries to the chest and back. Officials have not publicly filled in every detail of Niurka’s wounds, and they have said they still do not know the motive.
Only after the search ended did the case fully become a courtroom matter. The defendant, identified by prosecutors as Hector Gamaliel Argueta-Guerra, has pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges. Authorities have also said he earlier provided a different name. Prosecutors expanded the case to include capital murder allegations tied to kidnapping, burglary, multiple victims and the killing of a child under 14, along with abuse-of-a-corpse and obstruction counts. Those charges are severe, but they came after weeks when the public story was less about prosecution than about the grim effort to locate a family that had disappeared without explanation.
What remains in the public record is a case defined by movement: from a quiet home in Theodore to surveillance footage, from a traffic stop in Bay Minette to a wooded grave in Baldwin County, and from a missing-family bulletin to a capital case that still leaves investigators without a clear motive or a recovered weapon.
Author note: Last updated April 8, 2026.