Mother offers wrenching plea for help finding 15-year-old daughter’s killer; $20,000 reward offered

Guadalupe Villa clutched a stuffed animal Thursday morning as she stood in front of TV cameras with a wrenching plea: Would anyone with information about who killed her 15-year-old daughter in Covina just before 10 p.m. on Jan. 6 step forward?

“It’s not easy,” she said in Spanish, her eyes welling with tears.

Standing beside her, Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators announced a $20,000 reward approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for information leading to a conviction.

Karla Villa was standing on the sidewalk with her friends, checking her phone and waiting for a party to start in the Charter Oak community when someone started shooting.

Karla, an aspiring nurse who hoped to travel, was struck in the head and taken to a hospital, where she died the next day.

Det. Adan Torres told reporters that the evidence showed the shots were fired by someone on foot near Karla’s group. Investigators initially said the gunfire came from a black SUV driving by.

Villa, who has three daughters and a son, said that she wanted the shooter to grasp the pain her daughter’s death inflicted on her family, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

“I don’t cry in front of them,” she said, through an interpreter, referring to her children. “I have to be strong and not let them see me suffering.”

Anyone with information can call homicide detectives at (323) 890-5500.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek