Karely Palacio speaks on the memory of her late sister, Lesly, while her mother Aracely holds back tears, Tuesday Sept. 22, 2020. Lesly Palacio’s body was found in the desert near Valley of Fire State Park back on Sept. 9, 2020 after going missing for nearly 12 days.
Monday, Sept. 28, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Lesly Palacio would frequently cook impromptu recipes with her mother. On this morning, it was chicken and bell peppers.
Aracely Palacio remembers the late-August meal vividly, and not only because of the cherished mother-daughter time. Lesly Palacio seemed to be even more giddy than usual.
Lesly frequently worried about her family’s well-being, urging her mother to quit her demanding job as a housekeeper and plotting for her younger sisters to attend college.
Her dreams were coming to fruition. She helped her mother start her own cleaning business, which just landed its first contract. All they needed was a name, which the younger Palacio quickly suggested in the kitchen: “Cleaning Service Palacio.” Palacio translates to palace.
That, unfortunately, was the last time mother and daughter conversed. Lesly Palacio, 22, vanished hours later.
“She didn’t say goodbye,” said Aracely Palacio in Spanish, overwhelmed by tears Tuesday at the family’s southeast Las Vegas home. “She’s gone. Why? Everything was so good between us. We were in a good place.”
“Era una buena niña,” she added. (“She was a good girl.”)
Palacio’s remains were found Sept. 9 in a desert area about 50 miles north of Las Vegas, about a week after Metro Police said they suspected foul play in her disappearance and announced that homicide detectives were investigating.
Erick Michel Rangel-Ibarra, 25, is wanted on a murder warrant, and his father, 45-year-old Jose Rangel, is sought for allegedly concealing the crime. They are longtime acquaintances of the family.
Official information hasn’t been released on how they were connected to the killing or how Palacio died. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told KLAS-TV on Wednesday that detectives believe the suspects fled to the U.S.-Mexico border, and suggested that federal agencies were helping track them down.
The case has garnered widespread attention, including from hundreds of people online who have flooded the family with encouraging notes like #justiceforLeslyPalacio. Added media coverage of the slaying has mostly focused on the alleged killer and the family’s indescribable pain.
Last week, however, sitting around the wooden dining room table where Lesly used to have long talks with her mother and sisters, the family much rather preferred to talk about how Lesly Palacio lived her life, not how it was cut too short, or the way she was stripped away from them.
A shrine of flowers, large photos and candles sits in the same room. A bigger memorial continues to grow outside the house. As night fell Tuesday, a group of people arrived to light candles.
“She was my motivation in doing anything,” said younger sister Kaly Palacio, 14.
Everyone Lesly met liked her, and she liked everyone, Aracely Palacio said.
As a little girl, Lesly and her older sister, Karely, were close. Through childhood into adulthood, they became confidantes.
Lesly, the second of five daughters, embraced a mother figure role when Aracely Palacio was at her hotel job. She was noble and liked cooking meals for her family, always experimenting. And when Lesly wasn’t home, she was certain to check in to make sure her siblings had eaten.
She would force her mother out the kitchen when Aracely tried to cook dinner after long days that saw her clean upwards of 15 hotel rooms per shift. Get rest, Lesly would tenderly tell her mother.
At the time of her disappearance, Lesly, a Basic High School graduate, was studying to be a phlebotomist. “It was very fun, I can poke people now,” she would say to Kaly.
When the sisters were apart, they talked on the phone or messaged constantly. If they fought, Lesly had a way of making it easy to forget what the argument was about, even minutes later.
“She was my best friend ... we liked the same stuff,” Karely said.
Lesly assured her mother, who was furloughed because of the coronavirus pandemic, that she would help her work the cleaning business in her time off. “ ‘Mami’, soon we’ll be OK, you will see,’ ” Aracely Palacio remembers her daughter telling her.
Anything going on in her older sister’s life, good or bad, Lesly was the first person she reached out to, Karely said. They dreamed of opening a clothing boutique.
Lesly loved experimenting with her hair color, and Aracely remembers the girls getting ready together, blasting music and dancing in front of a mirror. She would cut up clothes into her own unique style.
Interested in fitness, Lesly would take her sisters to the gym or on hikes. At home, particularly because of the pandemic, they would work out in the backyard, where she even taught her mother different exercise routines.
Sometimes, as if she’s forgotten about her sister’s death, Kaly says she walks into Lesly’s room, hoping to see her. “It was just pretty cool, having her with me all the time; she was never boring. ... She was really kind —really, really kind,” she said.
Though struggling, the family has vowed to continue to honor Lesly’s memory. Her mother will continue with the cleaning business, and Karely said she will try to fill her sister’s shoes at the house.
“I try to appear strong, but I’m not OK. I need Lesly to keep fighting, but I still have my daughters to fight for,” a sobbing Aracely Palacio said. “She didn’t like to see me suffering; didn’t like to see me cry.”
She also recalls one of Lesly’s constant messages, and usually delivered in a tranquil voice, “Todo va a, estar bien. Vas a ver que todo va a estar bien.” That translates to, “Everything will be OK, you’ll see that everything will be OK.”
Note: The family has set up a gofundme account to help offset funeral expenses for Lesly Palacio.
