Girl’s Body Found by Children Playing in Santa Ana River

The body of 9-year-old Patricia Lopez, the Santa Ana third-grader who had been missing since she left school Wednesday afternoon, was found Friday morning by a group of children playing in the dry bed of the Santa Ana River.

Santa Ana Police Lt. Bob Chavez said “there was trauma” to the body that could have been the result of a beating with several blunt objects found nearby. He declined to describe the objects or to say which part of the body had been struck.

He said there were no signs of sexual molestation. An autopsy will be performed.

Chavez said there are no suspects, but he did not rule out the possibility that the killing was gang-related. Patricia’s brother, 19-year-old Hector Lopez, was grazed on the forehead by a bullet in what police said was a gang-related shooting Feb. 8 in Santa Ana.

‘Questions We Can’t Answer’

Asked about the family’s involvement in that case, Jennie Hernandez, Patricia’s aunt, said Friday: “You’re asking questions we can’t answer.”

Chavez said: “We are naturally aware that her brother had been the victim of a gang-related incident. However, we have no evidence” to indicate that Patricia’s death stemmed from that incident.

“It will be investigated and looked at, naturally,” he said.

Ten children found the fully clothed body at 9:45 a.m. in a drainpipe that empties into a storm drain channel near the Fairview Street Bridge, about two miles from Monte Vista Elementary School. Patricia was last seen alive by a teacher at the school about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday.

Location of Death Sought

Police were trying to determine whether the girl had been killed where the body was found or brought there after she was dead. A bloodhound was being used as a part of that effort Friday afternoon.

A helicopter had flown over the riverbed Thursday during an intensive door-to-door search by 35 police officers and about 25 volunteers from the Orange County Search and Rescue Team, but the pipe in which the body was found is not visible from either the air or the street.

Chavez said the children who found the body immediately flagged down a flood control worker, who contacted police. The youngsters were interviewed at the Santa Ana Police Department and then taken home, he said.

Clothing Was Different

The body was not officially identified until more than four hours after police arrived at the scene. Chavez said that was partly because the original report of the clothing worn by the girl when last seen was slightly different from that found on the body.

Chavez said family members apparently had difficulty remembering accurately what Patricia was wearing the day she disappeared.

Patricia normally met her mother after school at the corner of Center Street and McFadden Avenue, about a block from the school gate and within seven blocks of the family home. But Modesta Lopez was a few minutes late Wednesday, and when she did not see her daughter, she went home to look for her.

Unable to find the girl, the mother and her children searched the neighborhood. After four hours the family called police.

Patricia’s brother, Hector, said Thursday that he and his family “went walking all over the neighborhood during the night. We didn’t stop until 4 a.m. Then we got up around 7 a.m. and still went knocking on doors.”

‘Kept Going All Night’

Patricia’s father, Ascension Lopez, who works for a Huntington Beach waste disposal company, “didn’t sleep at all” Wednesday night, his son said. “He kept going all night. He wouldn’t stop. She was his baby.”

There was no history of conflict within the family, and the girl had never run away, according to police.

On Friday, shortly after the body was identified, Hernandez said the family was too upset to speak to reporters.

“At this point right now the family doesn’t feel like talking,” said a young man who declined to give his name but said he was a family relative. “The family just wants the whole thing to be over.”

As the event unfolded Friday, shock and sadness spread throughout the surrounding neighborhood of one-story, stucco houses.

“I fear a lot and take care (to know) where my kids are,” said Julio Ranado, 28, father of three children ages 8, 7 and 3. “But I can’t do anything about this.”

Standing in his driveway across the street from the Lopez house, Nemecio Muro, 48, shook his head and said: “Oh, man, I feel real bad. I feel so sorry for those people. I’m spending more time with my kids.”

Muro has five children, ages 3 to 22.

Victoria Nunez, 34, who has lived 12 years on Shelly Street, three houses away from the Lopez residence, has four children, ages 12 to 4.

“Yes, I feel afraid,” said Nunez.

Several residents reported hearing a number of shootings in the neighborhood within the last year.

Edward Dailatka, 67, has lived a block away from the Lopez residence since 1965. Five bullet holes from drive-by shootings five years ago can still be seen on his house. Still, Dailatka said:

“It (the Lopez tragedy) came as quite a surprise to me.”

Chavez urged anyone having information to telephone the Police Department at (714) 834-4801.

Times staff writer Mark Landsbaum contributed to this story.