On February 3rd of 2004, Southwood Middle School’s students and teachers were oblivious of the horrifying murder that was to take place that day. On the morning of 3rd February, 2004, a student of Southwood Middle School made a visit to the bathroom before heading to class.
Just as he entered the bathroom, he saw a tall boy wearing glasses calmly exit the bathroom at the same moment. He took notice of specs of blood dotting the floor of the bathroom and a black school bag sitting on the floor.
He followed the specs of blood that led him to peek inside one of the bathrooms. There, he saw a large pool of blood and a pair of feet hanging down from the toilet.
The frightened boy rushed to the security guard to aware him of the horrifying scene that he had just witnessed. However, the security guard brushed it off and told the boy to go to class.
The traumatized boy, unable to calm his nerves after what he had just seen, decided to tell one of his friends about it. He then described the scene to one of his friends and together, they went back into the washroom to see what was in there. They mustered up courage and pushed the door open only to be petrified by what was inside.
There was a boy lying on the bathroom with his feet and head hanging down, faced downwards, motionless with blood dripping down his face, forming a big pool of blood in which lay a pair of black spectacles.
The two boys rushed out of the bathroom and ran to the security guard again, who this time believed the boys because of how terrified they seemed to be. He went into the bathroom and was aghast at the state of the body.
He immediately dialed the Miami Dade Police Department, after which, he left to retrieve the assistant principal. When he came back to the washroom, to his surprise, the body that was inside the bathroom was now lying flat on the washroom floor with it’s arms spread out. Someone had come into the washroom as soon as he had left and moved the body out of the toilet.
Some of the staff quickly identified the victim as Jamie Gough, a student of the eighth grade. It was very clear that the boy’s throat had been slit and that one side of his neck was shredded to pieces by a sharp object. The school was immediately put under lockdown and none of the students or staff could leave until the police arrived.
One of the witnesses told the police that they identified the boy who exited the bathroom early that morning as Michael Hernandez, an eighth grade student.
Upon questioning Michael Hernandez’s teacher the police learned that since the time the class had started, Michael had requested to use the bathroom three times.
When he returned to class his teacher observed that he had blood on his shirt and asked him about it. Michael told the teacher that he had a nose bleed and calmly walked past her and sat down at his desk. The police retrieved Michael’s school bag and what they found inside was leading their doubt into confirmation about the suspect.
They found a pair of latex gloves with traces of blood on it and a red jacket with a switchblade knife in it. Michael was then taken to an office on the first floor of the school for the interrogation. There, he sat down opposite to the detective while maintaining the posture like that of an obedient student.
His hands subtly resting on the table between them while his eyes were fixed on the detective. He almost had a calm demeanor to him showing no signs of psychopathy.
Upon being questioned by the detectives about the blood stains on his shirt, Michael told them that he hit his face against the bathroom door while clowning around with the victim that morning. The detective examined Michael’s face for any injuries but found none.
Michael quickly changed his statement and claimed to have gotten the blood on his shirt and face when he got down to look under the toilet door to have a peak of what was inside. Further interrogation leads the detectives to learn about the gruesome murder that Michael had indeed committed.
He had been planning the murder of his two friends, Andre Martin and Jamie Gough a week prior to his birthday. His plan was to lure them into going into the toilet with him, first Andre and then Jamie with the vicious intention of murdering them on his birthday, that is on the 2nd of February.
However, they were both lucky enough to be saved by the late bell. But Michael was not going to let them leave without making sure that they’d “cooperate” the next day, to which they both agreed. Andre, however, didn’t show up the next day to school.
On the 3rd of February Jamie went into the bathroom with Michael and waited for Michael to show him “something”, as discussed earlier. Michael pulled out a pair of latex gloves that he had asked his mother to buy for him the previous day, claiming to use it for a science class.
He put on the gloves and latched the toilet door behind him. Upon being asked as to why he was wearing them he simply replied by saying that he liked how they felt on his hands.
He then asked Jamie to turn around because he wanted it to be a surprise. But little did Jamie know that this surprise would end up costing him his life. Michael proceeded to withdraw a knife from his jacket pocket, covered Jamie’s mouth and slit his neck.
Jamie turned towards Michael in terror and agony and pleaded him not to kill him, to which Michael agreed with the condition that Jamie must first cooperate with him. Jamie, being gullible enough, trusted his friend and remained as quiet as he possibly could.
Michael, being the sociopath he was, continued to stab his best friend in the neck for a total of forty one times without feeling even a hint of remorse for murdering him. Once Jamie became motionless Michael placed his body across the toilet seat with his head and legs hanging down from the toilet.
He made sure that Jamie was indeed dead by checking his eyes and by stabbing his face to which he received no response, making it clear that Jamie was gone forever. Michael then left the bathroom and headed to class, but he realised that his ring was missing, and so, he went back to the toilet to retrieve it.
The detective asked Michael if he returned to the bathroom to also check on Jamie. Michael blatantly replied that he went back solely for the sake of his ring as he valued his jewellery a lot. This statement of Michael makes it clear that he lacks the feeling of guilt of committing such a heinous murder of his own best friend.
Throughout the interrogation Michael talks in a very matter of fact way, even when it comes to the exact way in which he executed the murder and also by addressing Jamie, his best friend as “the victim.
Not once in the interrogation does he fidget or shift in his seat. All of these are the clear signs of a person suffering from ASPD. Throughout the interrogation Michael answers the detective calmly, but when asked to explain how he executed the crime he speaks fast, either because of anxiety or because of excitement of feeling the satisfaction of murder all over again.
In the interrogation he also describes how he wanted to kill Andre first and then Jamie but could not execute his plan because Andre did not show up to school the next day.
Upon investigating Michael’s room, the police found a journal in which he had written down an entire plan as to how to execute the murders, the list of people that he was going to kill (His two best friends — Andre Martin and Jamie Gough along with his sister) and the list of his most favourite serial killers.
This was not the most startling discovery for the police. In one of the drawers, they found a collection of different kinds of knives. Michael had told the police that he had asked his father, the owner of a knife store if he could borrow a few knives for his collection to which his father had agreed to.
On being asked multiple times about the real reason why he killed his best friend Michael replies saying that there was no reason for him to commit such a malicious crime. From this statement of his it can be said that it was purely for his pleasure and satisfaction.
He was given life imprisonment along with an additional thirty years for the murder of his Jamie Gough and for the attempted murder of Andre Martin. In 2016, automatic life sentences for juveniles were banned by the Supreme Court. Michael claimed to have changed and made a bid for early release.
However, it was rejected when his call recordings with his girlfriend came to the limelight. In the phone calls he told his girlfriend how he would have to injure himself to show emotions. He also said that if he had become a serial killer, he would have had a signature of taking his victim’s eye and carving a cross on their foreheads.
In April 2021 at the age of 31 Michael Hernandez succumbed to cardiac dysrhythmia caused by morbid obesity. Jamie’s parents despite the torments that they faced shared their grievances of their son’s murder’s death with his parents. Andre Martin went on to become a detective at Miami Dade County and also has a loving family.
Michael allegedly suffered from depression since a young age due to his weight. During a soccer match, one of the team mates reportedly mocked at him regarding his physique.
Michael did not remain calm about this. He chased and poked him with a screwdriver. He was also known to mock and hit girls in his class. All this might have been due to Michael’s deteriorating mental health which nobody paid attention to.
Jamie definitely did not deserve to be murdered, especially by his own best friend whom he trusted the most. Perhaps, if Jamie would have denied Michael’s offer to go into the toilet with him that day, he would have been hail and healthy today. My heart aches at the thought of this...
