A Pregnant Woman Vanished Days Before Giving Birth: Inside Case of Evelyn Hernandez, the 'Other Laci Peterson'

Just days before she was scheduled to give birth to her second child, 24-year-old Evelyn Hernandez mysteriously vanished in San Francisco. The Salvadoran immigrant and single mother was last heard from on May 1, 2002. Her wallet was found several days later in a gutter miles away from where she lived. 

On July 24, 2002, Hernandez’s body was found in San Francisco Bay, missing its head and several limbs. However, her unborn baby and 5-year-old son Alex were nowhere to be found. 

Months later, in April 2003, the body of another newly-pregnant mother was recovered from the San Francisco Bay. Like Hernandez, Laci Peterson’s body was missing its head and other limbs. The body of the 27-year-old’s unborn son Conner washed up a day earlier. Laci was a married, middle-class White woman who went missing from her Modesto, Calif., home in December 2002, the same year as Hernandez.

Laci’s husband, Scott Peterson, is currently serving a life sentence for the murders of his wife and unborn child. To this day, Hernandez’s killer remains unknown, as well as the whereabouts of her 5-year-old and unborn child.

Despite their eerily similar ends, many only remember Laci’s name. But why is that the case and how can justice finally be served? 

These questions are among many asked in Murder Has Two Faces, a new three-part docuseries from ABC News Studios and executive producer and director Lisa Cortés premiering Tuesday, May 6, on Hulu.

Hosted by Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, each episode unravels a crime that shares uncanny similarities with high-profile cases, including Laci Peterson, Chandra Levy and the Craigslist Killer.  (A trailer can be seen below.)

The docuseries focuses on Hernandez’s case, as well as those of Joyce Chiang — a promising young attorney who vanished and was later found dead in Washington, D.C., like Chandra Levy — and the Tagged Killer, a New Jersey serial killer who, like the Craigslist Killer, used social networking to lure women to secluded locations where some met tragic deaths, according to a press release shared with PEOPLE.

It also includes exclusive interviews with friends and families of the victims as they fought for attention and justice for their loved ones, exploring the similarities to the highly publicized cases. 

Unlike with Laci, there was no media saturation, major police investigation, or large reward offered at the time of Hernandez’s disappearance.

During the investigation, however, police did interview Herman Aguilera, the father of Hernandez’s baby, who was married to someone else, SF Gate reported, citing authorities. His workplace was not far from where Hernandez’s wallet was found. He claimed he called Hernandez on the day she went missing but she didn’t answer. He said he even drove out to look for her, but decided to go back home after believing she was avoiding him, according to the outlet.

Police said Hernandez was unaware Aguilera was married. They also said Aguilera’s wife was aware of her husband’s relationship with Hernandez — but not that she was pregnant, SF Gate reported.

Similarly, Laci’s husband, Scott, was having an affair. However, Aguilera has never been deemed a suspect or person of interest in Hernandez’s killing.

Ahead of the docuseries’ premiere, PEOPLE spoke with Roberts, who said that Hernandez’s case was one that really stayed with her and that working with Cortés on this project was a “very powerful, creative way to get into true crime, but in a way that there’s a little more meaning and purpose behind it.”

“The hope is people are going to say, ‘Oh my goodness, I knew this to be true’ and know that there is a disparity and it’s wrong,” Roberts told PEOPLE.

“And for all of us, those of us in the media, the public, law enforcement, to all take ownership of this and go, this is not right,” Roberts added. “It should not matter what you look like. Everyone who is a victim of a crime is deserving of justice.”

Cortés told PEOPLE that her longtime interest in “hidden figures” was a factor in highlighting these lesser-known stories.

“I wanted to find a way in that was in keeping with my curiosity, my concerns about how I can be of service in the work that I do,” she said, adding that the biggest challenge was making “certain that we get it right for the family members.”

Murder Has Two Faces is produced by Cortés Filmworks and Blue Ant Studios for ABC News Studios. The docuseries begins streaming Tuesday, May 6, only on Hulu.