The Investigation and the Alderpoint 8
Rodriguez's family hired a private investigator named Chris Cook, who quickly learned neighbours suspected the young man was dead. Cook reported her findings to the local sheriff but found that law enforcement did not seem interested in the case. Rodriguez's 1998 Dodge Ram four-wheel drive pickup — which he drove from Ocean Beach, San Diego, to Humboldt County — was then found in late May, about a month after Rodriguez was officially declared a missing person. The truck was discovered in a remote area nearly 20 miles from where he worked, and though the discovery was strange, there were no signs of foul play.
Growing frustrated with the stagnant case, a team of eight men in the nearby town of Alderpoint formed a posse known as the "Alderpoint 8" hoping to find answers on their own. The Alderpoint 8 confronted a man they believed to be the suspect and then forced him at gunpoint to take them to Rodriguez's body. An anonymous call was made to the sheriff, who later confirmed in December of 2013 that the body was Rodriguez, shot to death and buried in a shallow grave off of Jewitt Ranch Road, in the Harris area of Humboldt County.