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On July 15, 17-year-old Norma Lopez left her summer school class at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, California (60 miles east of LA) shortly after 10 AM. Walking alone, she chose to use a well-worn short cut across an open field on her way to a friend's residence on nearby Cottonwood Avenue. She was apparently the only one of the 400 students from her school who failed to made it home that sweltering day.
Reported missing by her older sister at 12:30 pm, investigators soon found evidence in the field, to include belongings associated with the victim, indicating she had likely engaged in a struggle and was taken by force from that location by an unknown person. Authorities treated her disappearance as a likely kidnapping and their worst fears were confirmed on July 21, when decomposed human remains found about 2.5 miles east of her school were identified as those of the missing teenager. Due to the severe weather in the local area, investigators at first were not even sure of the gender of the victim, but an autopsy, probably using dental records and/or DNA, revealed the remains were those of Lopez. The victim was found face-down in tall grass near a remote grove of trees and not too far from a desert road. She wore only a pair of jeans suggesting her shirt had likely been removed by her assailant(s). One media report indicated that no real effort had been made to conceal the victim's body, suggesting that she had simply been dropped off in a remote area by her killer(s), something like one would dispose of a broken doll; but she was real. Investigators, while not stating the victim's cause of death, indicated all evidence suggests she met a violent end to her life.
Sheriff's investigators and FBI Agents continue to press their investigation into the death of the young woman with few suspects on their investigative radar. Reports suggest that the victim's "on again, off again" boyfriend had been identified, interviewed, and eliminated as a suspect in her death. Southern California was the location for the kidnapping and murder of two other high profile victims whose bodies were found near San Diego. Amber Dubois, age 14, had been missing since 2009 while Chelsea King, age 17, was kidnapped while jogging in a local park earlier this year. Both victims were assaulted and murdered by a known sex offender, 31-year-old John Albert Gardner who has been sentenced to life in prison for the two murders. No cause of death has been issued for Lopez and the state of decomposition of her body could hamper such a conclusion on the part of the local medical examiner. Injuries to her skeletal system, cuts on her bones, and other injuries could still be evident, and hopefully there will have been some type of transfer from her killer to her remaining clothing, something that would lend itself to comparison with hairs, fibers, or other items related to her killer. But for know, investigators have only indicated that a green SUV was allegedly seen speeding away from the area at the approximate time Ms. Lopez disappeared. A law enforcement spokesperson also stated that the victim's remains were found in a location nearby where yet another murder victim's remains were found in the past year! This could suggest that one or more killers returned to the scene of a prior crime or in a worse case scenario that a serial killer could be preying on the community.
The Sheriff's Department has indicated the obvious, "there is a killer out there somewhere." "If I was a parent," said a law enforcement spokesperson, "I would keep track of my children. I would do everything I could to ensure their safety." The many challenges for law enforcement now include determining if Lopez was specifically targeted by her killer(s) or if she was a victim of opportunity, i.e., someone in the wrong place at the wrong time on a day so hot that no one living nearby was outside to view her kidnapping. Called a good student with no enemies, Lopez' murder has so far stumped investigators, but they have a few leads to go on and are awaiting scientific results, this while counting on the local community to come forward with information to assist in the investigation, like, for example, who drives or uses a green SUV in the local area. There are about 185 known sex offenders in the local community, dozens within a few miles of where the victim was kidnapped, all of which will need to be located and interviewed. We know that at least 5% of such offenders never provide the authorities with their current address, so this part of the case could burn up hundreds of investigative hours.
With a population just over 36 million, the FBI reported that California experienced approximately 2,200 homicides in a recent year, part of the 16,000 plus murders known to have occurred in America that same year. The family and friends of Norma Lopez are heart broken with their single loss, while other local parents rightfully fear for the safety of their children, this while law enforcement presses their hunt for a killer before he or they can kill again.
For more information concerning personal and family safety and security, to obtain a free copy of our DVD “Protecting Children from Predators,” to find out the identity and location of sexual offenders in your community and neighborhood, and to learn how to get the new iPhone, iPod Blackberry application, “Silent Bodyguard,” one that with just one-button allows you to send a personal distress message to multiple people and transmits your exact GPS coordinates every 60 seconds, go to www.LiveSecure.org or the itunes website.
