Dateline: The Devil Was Watching—Details of Tina Sandoval's mysterious death explored 

The disappearance of Kristina Tournai-Sandoval, who everyone called Tina Sandoval, took place back in 1995. For more than twenty years, the people who cared about her and the detectives working on the case looked for any clue that could explain what happened to her. Her husband, John Sandoval, was always thought to have something to do with it, and in 2010, he was found guilty. But in 2016, his conviction was turned around.

Tina Sandoval was just 23 years old when she went missing. She was a nurse living in Colorado, and she had a meeting with her husband to sort out their finances before they got divorced. She was scared and told her friends and family that if she ended up in trouble, John would be the one who did it.

When she didn't come back from the meeting, everyone started to worry. John had a history of doing weird things, which made everyone suspect him even more. When the police looked into it, they found things that made them think John was guilty. But even with all these signs pointing to him, they didn't have the kind of evidence that could prove it without a doubt.

So, after all those years of looking for answers, the sad reality came to light.

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The decades-long pursuit of justice for Tina Sandoval

On October 19, 1995, Tina Sandoval went missing after meeting with John. The next morning, a camera spotted John returning to his home at an unusually early hour. Later on, when the police decided to have a look around John's place, they stumbled upon a shovel that appeared to have seen better days. It was caked in mud, which suggested it had been used for something quite messy. This discovery certainly set off some alarms in their heads.

But without a body to back up their suspicions or an eyewitness account of what had gone down, they couldn't pin anything on him just yet. However, John wasn't exactly a pillar of the community. He had a shady past, with a string of incidents involving him sneaking onto other people's property and making women uncomfortable by stalking them. Tina Sandoval had confided in her sister that John had a peculiar habit of spying on the ladies.

Michael Rourke, who was the District Attorney back in the day, talked about this case like it was a ghost that wouldn't leave the town alone—it was always there, haunting everyone who knew about it. Years later, in 2009, they decided to take another look at what happened to Tina Sandoval. They found John guilty and gave him a sentence to spend the rest of his life in prison.

But then, in 2016, a higher court said there were some mistakes in how they did things the first time, so John's conviction got thrown out. Now, they had to decide what to do with him again. John didn't want to go through another trial, so he made a deal. He promised to tell the police where they could find Tina Sandoval's body if they'd give him a shorter sentence.

And so, in March of 2017, the terrible truth came out. They dug up Tina Sandoval's body from the cemetery Sunset Memorial Gardens. John had hidden her in a spot where a veteran soldier was supposed to be buried. This sneaky move, making sure she would stay a secret for many years to come.

Rourke stated,

“For 7,826 days, her family lived in agony not knowing where she was.”

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Who was John Sandoval, and why did he kill his wife?

John Sandoval’s history was shrouded in shadows, with a deep-rooted yearning to dominate. At the outset, he portrayed the role of a caring spouse to all who knew him. Yet, as the months and years ticked by, the real John began to emerge. Tina Sandoval started to realize what lay beneath the surface. She discovered a part of John that was far from loving, including his tendency to watch women and, more alarmingly, follow them.

The shocking reality of John’s double life was brought to light when over 100 tapes were found in their Las Vegas home. These tapes contained footage of numerous unsuspecting women he had followed and recorded, invading their privacy without their consent. The most chilling of these recordings was one that seemed to show him attacking a sleeping woman after sneaking into her unlocked room.

Despite the gravity of these findings, John never faced charges for these crimes, leaving his victims without legal recourse. But the question remains: why did John take Tina Sandoval’s life? He never confessed to the specific events that led to her murder, but those who studied the case closely have a theory.

As Tina Sandoval grew stronger and made plans to leave him and build a new life for herself, John’s need to control her became unbearable. It's believed that her desire for freedom was what ultimately triggered his violent response.

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Tina Sandoval's story was seen on The Devil Was Watching on Dateline Season 28 on NBC on December 13th, 2019.

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