Friend who heard murder confession thought furniture heiress would end up dead in love triangle
The discovery of a dead, battered woman off a Florida highway led investigators to unravel her unconventional lifestyle and to the murder convictions of her two lovers in their "throuple" relationship.
Before her body was recovered at the end of a cul-de-sac near Highway 98 on April 23, 2018, Aileen Seiden had checked into room 15 of the Sportsman's Lodge Motel in Eastpoint, Florida, along with her boyfriend Zachary Abell and their mutual girlfriend Christina Araujo.
A medical examiner testified that Seiden's injuries were comparable to "the kind of thing [he saw] in motor vehicle crashes," The Apalachicola Times reported.
Nearly all of her ribs were broken, and extensive bruising had turned the woman's face, abdomen and upper body to an angry purple, the outlet reported.
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Initially, police were unable to identify Seiden's body. However, soon after her body was found, they were called to a bloody scene at the Sportsman's Lodge.
"As soon as I came in, I noticed the bed. I mean, it's — you couldn't miss it," lead investigator Ronnie Jones said in a newly released CBS "48 Hours" documentary about the case, "Who Killed Aileen Seiden in Room 15?"
"I mean, this whole area was covered and had blood stains on it," he said. "I just put two and two together, and I automatically put that back to the body that was found the day before. It wasn’t just somebody cut [themselves] and bled a little bit on the bed. I mean the amount of blood… tells me that whoever was here was probably deceased."
Testing ultimately indicated that the blood belonged to Seiden.
Seiden was the youngest daughter of Miami businessman Frank M. Seiden, who sold furniture to luxury hotels, cruise ships and Disney Resorts, according to the Miami Herald. Seiden, Abell and Araujo lived in North Miami.
Mike Picavet, who knew the trio, told Fox News Digital that the love triangle was overcrowded, wrought with jealousy and peppered with hotheaded brawls.
"Christina and Aileen had their first fight in my kitchen [in 2017]," Picavet said this past week. "Because [Abell] brought her over, brought both of them over. Aileen threw it in Christina's face that she'd already been having sex with Zach for a year already. And then Christina started throwing punches right away. And it was really weird because Aileen lost and got back up and she, you know, everything was calmed down, and she started saying, Well, you're fat and ugly, too."
From then on, Picavet said, Seiden and Araujo would trade punches often in fights fueled by alcohol, often resulting in black eyes on one or both of the women. Those fights were bookended by periods of raucous partying and drinking, he said.
Abell and Araujo started dating five years before Seiden's murder. Meanwhile, Seiden and Abell had known each other since they were teenagers and reconnected in 2017.
Picavet, who met Abell and Araujo in a bar several years before Seiden came into the picture, said that Abell always had a "side piece" of some sort before the throuple's relationship began.
Picavet said he did not believe that Abell was abusive. However, he said that Araujo was always "very controlling and directing" toward both of her lovers. He said that Abell tried multiple times to break up with Araujo, but things were messy because they were business partners.
"He tried so many times," Picavet said. "He just didn't know how to… and then also…all the threats all the time that she could make him disappear… Every time she got drunk, she'd say some weird things."
Seiden and Abell began dating in secret, with Seiden's best friend telling documentarians that the man led her to believe that he would leave the other woman.
When Seiden lost her job as a property manager in 2017, a friend of hers told CBS that she started working at Abell and Araujo's used car dealership. Picavet said that she lost her apartment at the same time. When Abell finally attempted to break things off with Araujo, Seiden's friend said Araujo countered with an unconventional proposal: that the three of them date as a "throuple."
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Friends and family told documentarians that Seiden was considering breaking off the relationship in the weeks before her death. However, she shocked them when she moved in with her lovers in what her best friend called "one last chance to make it work."
On April 7, 2018, Abell and Araujo got into a fight. Seiden picked up Abell and took him away from the house, and the pair went on a road trip.
Araujo sent more than 150 angry text messages to Seiden and Abell in a 24-hour span, according to the documentary. However, after her two lovers had been gone for about 48 hours and had reached Texas, she had a change of heart.
"If you want to come back home come back. You never have to question my love," Araujo wrote, according to the documentary.
Abell and Seiden then invited Araujo to fly out to meet them in Texas.
Picavet told Fox News Digital that he "thought [Seiden would] end up dead there or something because [he] didn't expect them to come back altogether."
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Ten days into the road trip, Seiden feared for her life and called her sister.
"I was like, ‘Aileen, run to the nearest gas station,'" Franceasa Seiden recalled, according to the documentary. "I said ‘run, get the — get out of there’ … ‘Go!’ …She's like, 'I can't.'
Back in Florida, on their way home to North Miami, the group headed to the Sportsman's Lodge Motel, where they decided that they would spend one more day there and continue to party. On the morning of April 22, they stocked up on Fireball whiskey and vodka at a liquor store, surveillance footage showed.
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That day, Seiden called her best friend and crafted an escape plan. She intended to get on a bus back home when the trio reached Tampa, their next destination. The friend bought Seiden a Greyhound ticket because she had left for the sudden road trip without her wallet.
However, Seiden's friend never heard from her again.
On the evening of April 23, Picavet said that Araujo and Abell turned up on his doorstep.
"I was like, 'OK, where's Aileen?' And right away, Christina says, ‘Oh, she ran away.’ … And I said, ‘Bull----,'" Picavet recalled. "I said, ‘Where is she?’ And Zach right away… started to choke up, and he said, 'She's dead.'"
Abell told Picavet that Araujo had killed Seiden and convinced him not to call 911 when he found her body. Likewise, Picavet feared a violent outcome if he notified law enforcement.
"I was worried for my safety then, from Christina," he told Fox News Digital. "Well, I can't sleep in my house now. This is crazy. She knows. I know. So, you know, I could end up… she could end up killing me."
Picavet said Araujo described where she and Abell dumped the body, and he began searching for the location on Google Maps. Ultimately, he would give police the same location where Seiden's body was found.
After his friends had fallen asleep on his couch, Picavet snapped a photo. Then, he took to social media to find Araujo's father, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department Col. Tony Araujo. When he finally reached him, Picavet sent him the photo and told him that he had urgent news about his daughter.
They met up at a nearby gas station.
"I went up there … I said, ‘Christina killed somebody.’ And he says, 'You know I'm a cop, right?' And I'm like, ‘Yes, sir. I do,'" Picavet said. "He right away said, ‘Wait right there.’"
Araujo brought Picavet to the police station, where he made a formal statement. There, he identified a photo of Seiden's battered body.
Police arrested Abell and Araujo and charged them both with first-degree murder. However, they would not face a jury for six years due to court delays and complications.
In 2023, Araujo took a plea deal for the lesser charge of second-degree murder. Abell went to trial in Franklin County in January 2024. Because Araujo confessed to beating Seiden, she became a crucial witness in his trial.
Abell's attorney, Alex Morris, argued in court that Araujo had the motive to kill Seiden – jealousy over Abell's split attention – and that she was the instigator in her death.
Ultimately, the jurors found Abell guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder, as they were unable to decide whether he had intended to kill Seiden when he and Araujo beat her.
At his sentencing, Abell claimed that he intended to leave Araujo and had proposed to Seiden with a Ring Pop on their road trip.
"Me and Aileen were gonna go our way and leave Christina out of it," he claimed.
Picavet is convinced that Abell did not take part in the beating that cost Seiden her life, although he did help dispose of Seiden's body.
"I know he didn't kill her just because I know Zach. And he, you know, he would have told me he's innocent of the murder. He's stupid. Stupidly not innocent for helping move the body," Picavet said.
Picavet said he is committed to helping Abell prove his innocence in the murder and said that a hidden camera in his apartment when his friends returned to his home that night captured Araujo admitting to being solely responsible for the killing and contradicting testimony that she gave in court.
However, that small camera, disguised as an outlet, was taken into evidence by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Picavet claims that investigators were unable to pull files off it for evidence and that he hopes to get the SD card from the device back so that he can obtain the footage that could help his friend.
"Once that happens, then Zach's appeal should be good because there the evidence is going to come out, which is new evidence that Christina's whole testimony was bulls---. And then it'll be hopefully good for Zach."