TUCSON, Ariz. - We know more now about the tangled web that led to kidnapping and murder charges against Christopher Clements.
Clements is charged in two high profile child murders--the deaths of 6-year-old Isabel Celis and 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez.
Some key evidence against Clements sat unused for three years.
Isabel Celis and Maribel Garcia died two years apart but their fates are still tied together.
13-year-old Maribel's body was found in this remote part of Avra Valley in June 2014, three days after her family saw her for the last time.
That is the same area convicted sex offender Christopher Clements brought investigators as he led them to the remains of Isabel Celis---five years after she disappeared from her family's home in 2012.
Clements is charged with kidnapping and killing them both. Detectives say a DNA match ties him to Maribel Gonzalez but a Pima Sheriff's report says some DNA evidence was not processed until three years after Maribel's body was found in 2014.
In May 2017 a new lead detective on the case decided to review the evidence. He wrote, "I noted several items of evidence that appeared to have not been previously tested by DNA Labs International or any other forensic lab." Investigators say of the six samples found, one found DNA on Maribel Gonzalez from Christopher Clements.
As Christopher Clements led investigators to Isabel Celis remains, he said he didn't kill her. He blamed other criminals for that but he said he did pour bleach on her remains to repel animals.
But police reports cite other evidence to explain how Isabel Celis may have attracted Clements' attention.
He made a business of buying, fixing and selling Honda and Acuras. Police say he went to the Celis house at least twice asking to buy an old Acura there.
Police say he made four short phone calls to a Celis family phone. And detective reports say Clements phone locked onto a cell tower near the Celis house the day Isabel disappeared and soon after locked onto a cell tower near the Avra Valley site where she was found many years later. The reports also say the day after Isabel Celis disappeared, Christopher Clements got a new phone and new phone number.
