“48 Hours” and CBS News employee Maria Elena Salinas are investigating the death of a Binghamton University nursing student and the international search for her killer in “The murder of Haley Anderson.”
It was March 2018 and Haley Anderson was a nursing student at Binghamton University. Graduation was just around the corner, as was a nursing job at a hospital not far from her hometown on New York’s Long Island. In an exclusive interview with “48 Hours,” Haley’s mother, Karen Anderson, told CBS News’ Maria Elena Salinas that she was excited about the prospect of having her daughter home and was planning a big celebration. Karen never thought that Haley wouldn’t make it to graduation.
It all started in the early morning hours of March 8th. Haley and her roommates had been playing board games and drinking when they finally went to bed around 4 a.m. Haley’s roommate and close friend Josie Artin, who is also only with “48 hours,” says Haley when she woke up. At first, Artin says she wasn’t worried. “When I didn’t hear from her for the first time, I didn’t think, ‘Oh, something terrible has happened.'”
Karen Anderson
Haley was very independent and capable, says Artin. She also had a lot of friends and was together a lot. It never occurred to Artin or Haley’s other roommates that their boyfriend might get into trouble. It wasn’t until later that night, when Haley didn’t show up for a meeting at a local bar, that they began to worry. Haley had never pulled her up before, and it wasn’t like disappearing from social media or leaving repeated phone calls unanswered. One of her roommates decided to use the Find My Friends app to track down Haley’s iPhone and found that Haley’s cell phone was in her fellow student Orlando Tercero’s apartment.
After connecting with Haley at a party, Tercero became her friend with benefits. His roommate, Jesse Bua, told “48 Hours” that Orlando was very interested in Haley. But it was a tense friendship. Bua says: “Sometimes they argued … and sometimes they laughed hysterically … and sometimes they kept their distance and didn’t see each other a little.”
Artin says Tercero was extremely jealous of someone Haley spent time with and drove past his house, often dropping by uninvited. When Haley’s iPhone appeared in Tercero’s apartment, Artin and another roommate, Mishela Topalli, went to find her friend.
What they didn’t know was that Tercero’s sister had already called the police. Her brother had left her a worrying voicemail and she wanted someone to do a social check. The police knocked on the door and when no one answered, they left. Tercero’s car was gone and it appeared no one was home. Artin and Topalli knocked too and got no answer, but knowing that Haley’s phone was still inside, they decided to climb through a window.
In a matter of hours, police would find surveillance cameras from various locations that served as evidence in a murder case.
Starting with a camera in Tercero’s house that captured him and Haley the first time they entered his apartment – and ending with cameras at JFK International Airport that showed Tercero boarding a plane to Nicaragua.
Tercero was born in Miami to a wealthy Nicaraguan family. He had dual citizenship and grew up in Nicaragua. When he fled there, authorities in the United States were concerned that he could get away with murder.
