Family Friend Held in Slaying of Anaheim Girl

An 18-year-old Anaheim woman who occasionally visited the house where 9-year-old Autumn Wallace was found stabbed to death has been arrested on suspicion of murder and burglary, and police are looking for two other suspects in the case, authorities said Thursday.

A fingerprint found inside the family’s home was the “key factor” that led to the arrest of Maria del Rosio Alfaro in connection with the June 15 slaying of the youngster at her home, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Olson said investigators were also looking for two men, but he declined to describe their relationship to Alfaro.

Autumn, a popular student at Dr. Jonas E. Salk Elementary School, was found face down in a pool of blood in the back of her Hedlund Drive home in an unincorporated area between Stanton and Anaheim.

At the time of the slaying, she apparently had been at home alone, waiting for her mother and sister to return from work, authorities said.

For two weeks, investigators searched for leads in the slaying that stunned the normally quiet neighborhood where the Wallace family lived, talking to residents and combing through the house with sophisticated forensic equipment, including a fingerprint detection device that uses laser technology.

Olson said it was a fingerprint that led investigators to Alfaro.

“Without the (automated fingerprint identification system) we’d still be at rock bottom,” Olson said. “We wouldn’t have a suspect in jail.”

Alfaro, who Olson said has used at least four other aliases, was taken into custody at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday in the front yard of a home at the corner of Jeffrey and Audre drives near Disneyland. She was questioned by detectives and at 2 a.m. Thursday was booked into Orange County Jail, where she is being held without bail.

Alfaro was scheduled to be arraigned today.

While Olson would reveal little about Alfaro’s background, Autumn’s aunt said that Alfaro met Autumn’s 18-year-old sister, April, in high school.

“It’s too bizarre,” said Joyce Wallace, the aunt. “I know this type of thing happens because I work in the courthouse and I’ve seen it, but it’s just really hard to believe. . . . It’s sad. It’s really sad.”

Joyce Wallace said she spoke briefly with Linda Wallace, Autumn’s mother, following Alfaro’s arrest.

“She’s kind of relieved that someone got caught,” she said, but was “a little disbelieving that it was somebody that they knew.”

Olson said investigators had speculated that Autumn may have willingly let her would-be attacker inside because “there were no signs of forced entry.”

According to Olson, the suspect was “well known to the family and had been at the victim’s house on prior occasions.” Autumn lived with her sister and 41-year-old mother, who works as a clerk at the Orange County Courthouse. Her father died three years ago of cancer.

Investigators declined to comment on what they believe led to Autumn’s death, or if Alfaro was suspected of being the person who actually killed the young girl, who died of a loss of blood due to multiple stab wounds.

The investigation, Olson said, revealed that two men were seen in front of the Wallace house near a gold, late-1970s model Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the afternoon of Autumn’s death. One of the suspects “was seen bending over and leaning into the open trunk of the vehicle,” Olson said.

“Right now we don’t know what involvement they had,” he said. “They were in front of the house, so we’re desirous in finding out what they were doing there.”

One of the suspects was described as a male Latino about 27 to 32 years old, of average height and weight, with thick, full black hair combed straight back and full, bushy mustache. He has brown eyes, possibly a small scar on the left cheek, acne scars and hairy forearms. Investigators said the man was seen in the Wallace’s front yard playing with a young Latino boy, about 18 to 24 months old, on the afternoon of the slaying.

The other suspect was described only as male, possibly Latino, with brown hair.

Autumn’s body was found by her mother after her sister, April, had come home to find the house had been burglarized. Police said a videocassette recorder, a television, a clock radio, iron, two telephones, a calculator and a Nintendo video game set were among the items stolen.

“It is very possible that some of this property may have been sold at swap meets or to citizens on the street,” Olson said.

Neighbors said Thursday that they were relieved that a suspect had been arrested.

Donna Walker, who lives next door to the Wallaces, said she had been “on edge. We were hoping they would catch whoever did it.”

Nonetheless, some residents remained concerned that police were looking for two more suspects. “It’s good they arrested her, but I know that there are at least two more to go,” said Jeff Mata, another neighbor.

“It will be a relief to get them all,” said Mata’s girlfriend, Heide Schaefer.

Times correspondent Greg Hernandez contributed to this report.