NORMA LOPEZ - 17 yo (2010) - Moreno Valley (E of Riverside) CA

An unidentified body was found Tuesday several miles from where a
17-year-old girl disappeared on her way home from summer school last
week.Hours earlier, the family of 17-year-old Norma Lopez pleaded
for her return and authorities offered a $35,000 reward for
information.Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Joe Borja said the
remains were not immediately identified as female or male. They were
located in a semirural area along a long road lined with utility poles
and with desert scrub on each side.The reward was offered after
efforts to find the girl stalled."If the person that took her is
out there, please let her go," sister Elizabeth Lopez told a news
conference. "She hasn't done anything to anyone to deserve this, at
all."It's the latest disappearance of a teenage girl to cause
anguish in Southern California. Convicted sex offender John Albert
Gardner III is serving a life sentence for killing 17-year-old Chelsea
King in February and 14-year-old Amber Dubois last year in neighboring
San Diego County.Norma Lopez vanished Thursday after attending a
summer class at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, in the inland
region east of Los Angeles.Personal items and signs of a struggle
were discovered in a field the girl often used as a shortcut home.
Police went door-to-door, and searchers using dogs covered nearby areas
for days.Authorities have not identified any suspects or persons
of interest.FBI investigators have talked to school friends and
other acquaintances and continued to work with county investigators,
said Don Roberts, the FBI's supervisory special agent in Riverside."We
have our own children, and it does not take much motivation for FBI
agents and police officers to work day and night, as we are, to look for
Norma and find clues that will lead to her recovery," Roberts said.Borja
said investigators were acting on the presumption the girl was
kidnapped."We contacted every friend, relative, everybody
available that we can and there's no information that would leave us to
believe that she's a runaway," he said.Borja urged the public to
report suspicious strangers."We're following up all leads,
especially when it pertains to, you know, deviant behavior or behavior
that's not normal toward young females," he said.

Oh no, this is very sad news

A partially decomposed body was found in a desolate, grassy field in
Moreno Valley on Tuesday afternoon, just two miles from where a
17-year-old girl disappeared last week on her walk home from summer
school.

Riverside County Sheriff's Department officials said they have not
determined if the remains are those of Norma Lopez, who authorities
believe was abducted Thursday, triggering a massive search throughout
central Riverside County.

A local resident doing yard work found the body around 3 p.m. about a
mile south of the 60 Freeway, just off Theodore Street, on the eastern
outskirts of the city in an area surrounded by wheat fields, horse
ranches and jagged hills. The remains, which have yet to be identified
as male or female, were found in the tall grass and near a line of trees
but were not otherwise concealed, said Sgt. Joe Borja, a Sheriff's
Department spokesman.

"I know you're all interested in finding out whether this is Norma Lopez
or not, and honestly we do not know," Borja told reporters gathered
several hundred yards from the crime scene. "No matter which way it is,
it's still a tragic event. There's someone out in the field who is
dead."

Officials from the county coroner's office had removed the body by
Tuesday evening.

Borja said late Tuesday that an autopsy will be conducted Wednesday
morning, allowing authorities to determine the sex of the person. The
body was too decomposed to discern that at the scene, he said.
Investigators don't know how long the body was in the field because the
recent heat wave probably accelerated the decomposition, Borja said.

Dental records and DNA tests will also be used to determine whether the
remains are Norma's.

Borja said police warned the Lopez family about the grim discovery, and
they remained secluded in their Moreno Valley home.

Just hours before the body was found, Norma's mother and father appeared
at a news conference at Moreno Valley City Hall and delivered an
emotional plea for their daughter's safe return.

"If someone has her or knows about her, please … just call. We just need
to know about her," her father, Martin, said in Spanish. "It's
destroying us. Every day that passes, every hour."

Norma was reported missing about 12:30 p.m. Thursday by her older
sister, Sonja, after she failed to return home from summer school. She
was out of class at Valley View High School by 10 a.m. and had plans to
meet her older sister and another friend, authorities said.

Investigators said they found some of Norma's belongings, and signs of a
struggle, in a vacant field along Cottonwood Avenue. They are also
looking for the driver and passengers of a newer-model green SUV seen
near the dirt field at the time of her disappearance.

After the body was found, deputies roped off the area and waited for
coroner's officials to arrive and examine the remains. FBI
investigators, assisting the Sheriff's Department in the case, also
went to the scene.

"It could take as short as one day to a week to determine who that
person is," Borja said.

Barin Butler, 44, who owns a horse ranch across the road from where the
body was found, said he had been horseback riding around his property
the day before and had not seen anything suspicious.

Earlier Tuesday, the Sheriff's Department announced a $35,000 reward for
any information leading to Norma's return or the arrest and conviction
of anyone responsible for her abduction.

Authorities urged anyone with information about the case to call (877)
242-4345, or send an e-mail to findnorma@riversidesheriff.org.

MoVal body autopsy results to be released

11:39 AM PDT on Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The results of an autopsy conducted on a body found in
Moreno Valley will be discussed this afternoon.
Authorities have not announced if the body was that of a missing
Moreno Valley girl. Riverside County
sheriff's homicide detectives and Moreno Valley police will hold a
press conference at 2 p.m. to discuss the autopsy and update the
search for Norma Lopez, a 17-year-old who has been missing since
Thursday. Homicide detectives were alerted to
the discovery of a body in a remote Moreno Valley field on
Tuesday. The body was too badly decomposed to determine if the
remains were male or female. An autopsy was conducted this
morning. FBI detectives investigating the girl's
disappearance as a possible kidnapping also combed the scene off
Theodore Street in a grove of trees through the night.
Police say the death appears to be a homicide. No suspects
have been publicly identified. --Richard
Brooks

http://cbs2.com/local/body.found.Moreno.2.1816189.html
snipped
Jul

21, 2010 11:29 am US/Pacific


Police
To Hold News Conference About Missing Girl

MORENO
VALLEY, Calif. (AP) ―Julylice are planning a news conference to discuss
the results of an
autopsy done on human remains found several miles
from where a teenage
girl disappeared last week in Riverside County.

Deputy
Melissa Nieburger, a sheriff's spokeswoman, says the
identification
of the decomposed remains was "related" to the
disappearance of
17-year-old Norma Lopez. She declined to elaborate.

Nieburger
says there have been no arrests in the case. A news conference
was
planned for Wednesday afternoon.

The remains were found Tuesday
and Lopez vanished last Thursday while
returning from a summer
school class in Moreno Valley.

Authorities said Wednesday they have identified decomposed human
remains found near the Southern California site where a 17-year-old girl
disappeared last week.Deputy Melissa Nieburger said the
identification of the body is "related" to the investigation into the
disappearance of Norma Lopez.She declined, however, to say if it
was the body of Lopez or to release more details until an afternoon news
conference.Nieburger said no arrests have been made.A
resident reported finding the human remains Tuesday near an empty
stretch of road lined with utility poles and desert scrub in Moreno
Valley, an inland region about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.Loppez
vanished Thursday on her way home from a summer a summer school class
Valley View High School.Deputies found personal items and signs
of a struggle in a field the girl often used as a shortcut home. Police
went door-to-door, and searchers using dogs worked the areas for days.Investigators
haven't identified any suspects or persons of interest and were
presuming the girl was kidnapped.Lopez's family has pleaded for
her return, and authorities offered a $35,000 reward for information."If
the person that took her is out there, please let her go," sister
Elizabeth Lopez said. "She hasn't done anything to anyone to deserve
this, at all."

Authorities on Wednesday positively identified the partially
decomposed body found on the desolate outskirts of Moreno Valley as that
of Norma Lopez, the 17-year-old high school student who police
suspected was abducted after summer school.
The Riverside County coroner’s office made the determination after a morning autopsy.
The body was found Tuesday afternoon by a local resident doing yard
work in a remote section of town surrounded by wheat fields, just off
the 60 Freeway.
Exposed to the elements during the recent heat wave, the remains were
so decomposed that authorities could not immediately determine the sex
of the deceased, let alone whether it was Norma's body, said Riverside
County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Joe Borja.
Borja said investigators still have no suspects in the case, although
a newer model green SUV was seen speeding away from the area where
Norma disappeared.
Norma was reported missing about 12:30 p.m. Thursday by her older
sister, Sonja, after she failed to return home from a summer biology
class at Valley View High School. She was out of class by 10 a.m. and
had plans to meet her older sister and a friend, authorities said.
Investigators said they found some of Norma's belongings, and signs
of a struggle, in a vacant field along Cottonwood Avenue, a popular
shortcut among students just a few blocks from the school. They are also
looking for the driver and passengers of the SUV seen near the field at
the time of her disappearance.
On Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Department announced a $35,000 reward for
information leading to Norma's return or the arrest and conviction of
anyone responsible for her abduction.
Investigators from the Sheriff’s Department and the FBI have
interviewed dozens of friends and associates, as well as local felons
and others who crossed paths with police. Authorities urged anyone with
information about the case to call (877) 242-4345, or send an e-mail to findnorma@riversidesheriff.org.

A body found in east Moreno Valley was identified Wednesday as a
17-year-old girl who was abducted on her way to a friend's house last
week.
Norma Angelica Lopez disappeared the morning of July 15 after
finishing a summer class at Valley View High School and taking a
shortcut through a field, en route to a residence in the 27-300 block
of Cottonwood Avenue, about 2“The
investigation has changed from an abducted person to a homicide,”
Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Joe Borja said during a news briefing
outside the Moreno Valley Police Department. “We haven't stopped
investigating every lead since we were first notified of the abduction.
We will continue to follow every lead we have.”The
body, found just before 3 p.m. Tuesday in high grass off Theodore
Street, near Dracaea Avenue, could not immediately be identified, and
investigators relied on dental records to confirm it was Norma's,
according to Borja.A property owner doing outdoor work on his tractor spotted the remains.The
area is remote, with few houses. A commercial development lies about a
half-mile from the site, across from a farming operation.“That area was going to be searched eventually,” said Borja.He
confirmed another crime victim's remains were found in the same general
location within the last year, but did not get into the circumstances
of that case.Borja
would not disclose how Norma died, or whether she was sexually
assaulted, noting it was “very vital” to keep the information under
wraps for the sake of the investigation.He urged parents to be vigilant and ensure their children's safety.“There's
a murderer out there. Keep track of your children,” the sergeant said.
“It's probably our worst nightmare that our kids can be taken from the
street and killed.”

This is so sad. Hoping they find the perp and hang him in the desert. Keeping Norma & her family in my prayers.
RIP Norma, your are safe now little one.

how devastating for her family. let's hope LE catches the killer quickly -

So sad....RIP Norma.

The grieving older sister of a 17-year-old girl who was abducted and
killed pleaded with the murderer Thursday to surrender and explain why
the teen was targeted blocks from her high school."The person
that did this, why? Why her?" said Elizabeth Lopez, as she stood outside
the family home with her father, two little brothers and one of her
three other little sisters. "I don't want anybody to go through this,
but why her? She had never done anything to anyone."Norma Lopez,
an avid dancer and aspiring fashion designer, was abducted last week
while walking to meet a friend after a summer school class. Her body was
found five days later in a field less than three miles away."Just
get the touch of heart and turn yourself in 'cause you killed her when
we want her here home. Just turn yourself in. That's all we want,"
Elizabeth Lopez said as her sister Sonia, 16, embraced her.Their father Martin Lopez said he believed he felt it in his heart when his daughter died."For
me, the way I felt it, you feel it in the chest like a pressure, like a
hit, like someone was hitting me," he said in Spanish.Elizabeth Lopez said her mother was heartbroken but relieved the body was found."She just wished she could have done something," she said.Investigators conducted vehicle checkpoints and questioned sex offenders as the hunt for the killer expanded.Authorities
approached drivers on a street outside the school, near the site where
Norma Lopez's belongings were found last week. Detectives hoped to find
someone who saw the girl close to the time she was abducted.Investigators
were also questioning registered sex offenders in Moreno Valley,
sheriff's Sgt. Joseph Borja said. Fourteen registered sex offenders live
within a 2-mile radius of the high school where Lopez was last seen,
according to the Megan's Law website.The raven-haired teen
disappeared July 15 after leaving a biology class at Valley View High
School, where she would have been a senior this year. Norma Lopez was
going to meet her younger sister at the nearby home of a friend, as she
had done every day since summer school began, the family said.When
Norma didn't show up, her younger sister and a friend went to look for
her, found some of her personal items in a field 1 1/2 blocks from the
school and called authorities, said Borja, spokesman for the Riverside
County Sheriff's Department.The field, a well-known neighborhood
shortcut, is off a street that dead-ends at the base of boulder-studded
hills cut with trails and Lopez cut across it often, her family said.Searchers
fruitlessly covered the area for several days before Lopez's body was
discovered Tuesday by a man clearing brush in another rural field more
than two miles away.Police want to speak with the driver of a green SUV seen speeding from the area the day Lopez vanished.Authorities
have declined to release her cause of death, citing the ongoing
investigation, and would not say if she was sexually assaulted. Her
decomposed body was identified using dental records.Her father
said investigators also took blood samples from Lopez's sisters and
mother and took hairs from her brush as part of the investigationLopez's
parents, who are originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, were being
assisted by the Mexican consulate, said Carolina Zaragoza, head of the
consulate's local office.Moreno Valley is a city of 186,000 about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.The
teen's disappearance drew wide attention across Southern California,
where the high-profile abduction-murders of two other teenage girls in
San Diego County — one jogging alone this year and the other walking to
school in 2009 — led to a sex offender who ultimately admitted to the
killings and is now imprisoned.Lopez's best friend Giovanna
Gutierrez, 17, said she was supposed to meet Lopez at the high school
for senior class pictures the day she disappeared."She didn't have any problems. She was always full of laughter," Gutierrez said.

A Moreno Valley girl abducted and killed last week was a “unique,
wonderful” person whose killer needs to be found quickly to prevent
another child from suffering the same fate, the teen’s family said
today.
“To the person that did this — why? Why her? I don’t want anybody to
go through this. But why her? She had never done anything to anyone,”
said Elizabeth Lopez, the older sister of Norma Angelica Lopez, who was
snatched one week ago today.
“If you just get the touch of heart and turn yourself in,” Lopez
added tearfully. “You killed her when we wanted her here at home. Just
turn yourself in.”
The Lopez family held a news briefing outside their home on Dunbar
Court. Elizabeth Lopez was joined by her father, Martin, 16-year-old
sister Sonia and 13-year-old brother, Jose.
The remains of the 17-year-old were found Tuesday afternoon in a
remote area of east Moreno Valley, about 2 1/2 miles from where she was
abducted.
Norma finished a summer class at Valley View High School around 10
a.m. and was taking a shortcut across a field to a friend’s house on
Cottonwood Avenue when she was taken, according to Riverside County
sheriff’s officials.
Investigators would not disclose how she died, or whether she was sexually assaulted.
“If you know something, tell police,” said Elizabeth Lopez. “That
way, we could find this person. That way, this won’t happen again to
another girl out there. We want to get the killer … so no other family
will have to go through something like this.”
Hundreds of people gathered Wednesday night at Valley View High School to pay tribute and shed tears for Norma.
The stands of the school’s football field, which hold 2,800 people,
were nearly filled for a candlelight vigil, organized by word-of-mouth
and the Internet.
Students sang songs and shared memories of going to school with the shy, bubbly girl.
“I bet up in the sky, my sister was like, ‘Oh my God. I didn’t know I was so popular,’” said Elizabeth Lopez.
She said her sister aspired to be a “model, a fashion designer and a music artist.”
“She was an amazing girl, always had a smile on her face, no matter
what,” Lopez said. “Something like this should’ve never happened to her,
just from how she was — a very unique, wonderful girl.”
A public memorial service is planned at 1 p.m. Thursday at St. Christopher’s Catholic Church, 25075 Cottonwood Ave.
Sheriff’s deputies set up a traffic checkpoint today at Nason Street
and Cottonwood Avenue, not far from where Norma was abducted. Motorists
traveling through the area were asked whether they recalled seeing
anything suspicious on the day of the kidnapping.
“We haven’t stopped investigating every lead since we were first
notified of the abduction. We will continue to follow every lead we
have,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Borja Wednesday.
The body, found just before 3 p.m. Tuesday in high grass off Theodore
Street, near Dracaea Avenue, could not immediately be identified.
Investigators relied on dental records to confirm it was Norma’s,
according to Borja.
He said another crime victim’s remains were found in the same general
location within the past year, but did not provide details about that
case.
The sergeant urged parents to be vigilant and ensure their children’s safety.
“There’s a murderer out there. Keep track of your children,” he said.
“It’s probably our worst nightmare that our kids can be taken from the
street and killed.”
A green sport utility vehicle was seen speeding away from the area
around the time of Norma’s disappearance. Borja said investigators would
still like to know who was in the vehicle — if nothing else than to
rule the occupants out as suspects.
A $35,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the
arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for killing
the girl.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call 877-242-4345.

alwaysbelieve wrote: This does not sound good. My question is, how could the body be so decomposed already, she's only been missing a few days hasn't she?
Will be keeping her & her family in my prayers.

Norma Lopez disappeared at the beginning of a weeklong heat wave in which temperatures were at least 100° or above. This accelerates the rate the rate of decomposition. This is why at the morgue they put bodies in a freezer or refrigerator to slow down the rate of decomposition and preserve what's left of the body.