Suspect in 1975 Murder Seized in Mexico : L.A. Detectives Track Down Man Who Allegedly Set Girlfriend on Fire

A man who disappeared after his girlfriend was doused with paint thinner and fatally burned in their Hollywood apartment a decade ago has been arrested in northern Mexico after detectives who refused to give up the case finally tracked him down.

Juan Francisco Rocha, 36, will be tried in a Mexican court in the slaying of Brenda Joyce Abbud after the Mexican federal prosecutor in Monterrey agreed to try the case, using evidence supplied by the Los Angeles Police Department, detectives here said.

The case represents one of the first successes for the LAPD’s Mexican Prosecution Unit, formed a few months ago to work with Mexican authorities.

The unit operates under a provision of the Mexican constitution stating that a Mexican citizen who commits a crime in another country that is also a crime in Mexico can be tried in Mexico, said Hollywood Detective Arturo Zorrilla.

“We feel great that we got him at last,” another Hollywood detective, Tony Diaz, said Monday. “Over the years, we had probably 15 detectives who worked on that case. Murder cases you just don’t drop. This was a particularly brutal murder, and everyone who worked on it was determined to find this guy.”

Compiled Thick Case File

Zorrilla, who helped prepare the legal papers--in Spanish--and who was one of two detectives who presented them to officials in Monterrey, said Los Angeles police had “nothing but total cooperation from the Mexican authorities.”

During the last decade detectives had built up a thick file on the death of Abbud, an immigrant from Britain who shared an apartment with Rocha, an auto body worker, in the 1800 block of North Serrano Street in Hollywood.

On the evening of July 22, 1975, neighbors saw Rocha fling open the front door of the apartment and run down the hallway shouting that Abbud was on fire and asking for someone to call the Fire Department, Zorrilla said.

Before firemen could arrive, the neighbors had smothered the flames, but Abbud, 31, had suffered third-degree burns over 65% of her body.

In the four days before she died, detectives pieced together a statement from her about the couple’s jealous quarrels and mutual accusations of infidelity. In the last of those quarrels, she said, Rocha doused her with paint thinner and set her on fire after she accused him of having another lover.

Within hours, Detective S. K. Hodell, who first investigated the case, launched a search for Rocha, who had driven off in Abbud’s car. A few days later the car was found abandoned in Tujuana, and there was no trace of Rocha.

After months of searching, all leads evaporated. Other detectives took over, and for a decade the case was passed from one investigator to another.

“We tried everything,” said Diaz, who took over the case in 1980.

“Every time a detective in Hollywood Division had some free time he’d work on this case. We kept checking the Motor Vehicles Department to see if Rocha had come back and applied for a driver’s license. We kept in touch with police all over the Southwest, and sometimes we’d get a tip. There’d be a man picked up hundreds of miles away, like El Paso, and they’d call us saying, ‘Hey, this might be the guy in the paint thinner murder,’ and we’d get excited and send photos.

“We kept trying to find relatives of Rocha to see if we could get his address. But no luck. When we found relatives, they told us they didn’t know where he was. It was endless frustration. “

Zorrilla said that in Baldwin Park recently, “we found another relative, and he gave us an address in Monterrey where he said he believed Rocha was living. We wrote to the director of the State Judicial Police in Monterrey, forwarding documents and asking for assistance to check the address.”

Rocha, who also uses the name Juan Manuel Gonzales, was not at home, but Mexican police traced him to his job and arrested him.

Zorrilla and his partner, Gilberto Moya, prepared documents on the case in Spanish and flew to Monterrey. The case was accepted for prosecution on Sept. 23, and Rocha is now being held awaiting formal arraignment on a charge of murder.

During questioning by Mexican police, Rocha admitted that he poured paint thinner on Abbud, but he denied that he set her on fire, Zorrilla said.

“He told the police that Abbud, soaked with thinner, slipped during a struggle and burst into flames when she fell to the floor close to a gas wall heater,” the detective said.