LOCAL : Suspect in Nadia Puente Murder Arrested in Texas, Police Report

Santa Ana police announced today that a suspect has been arrested in Texas in connection with the murder of Nadia Puente, the 9-year-old girl abducted from Diamond Elementary School on March 20 and found dead the next day in Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

The suspect was identified as Richard DeHoyos by Santa Ana Police spokesman Lt. Robert Chavez. DeHoyos is currently being held in San Antonio where he was arrested over the weekend. According to KCBS-TV, San Antonio police reported that the suspect told them, “I was under drugs, on cocaine. I had just lost my job and I was mad at the world. I drowned the little girl in a hotel in Santa Ana. I didn’t know her. I just picked her up.”

An autopsy showed Nadia had been sexually molested and died of asphyxia when her chest was pressed against a solid object.