Suspect Turns Key Witness in Girl’s Death

A man who was identified as a suspect in the slaying of 9-year-old Autumn Wallace has contacted police and is now a witness in the murder case, sheriff’s officials announced Tuesday.

Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson identified the man only as a 35-year-old resident of Anaheim.

Autumn, a popular pupil at Dr. Jonas E. Salk Elementary School, was found face down in a pool of blood in a bathroom of her Hedlund Drive home in an unincorporated area between Stanton and Anaheim. Sheriff’s investigators said she had been stabbed numerous times.

Last week, authorities charged Maria del Rosio Alfaro, 18, of Anaheim with the June 15 slaying. At the same time, they released a composite of a man who was seen with a male companion in front of the Wallace house on the afternoon of the girl’s death. According to investigators, neighbors saw the man playing with a Latino child in the Wallace front yard.

Olson said the man depicted in the composite drawing contacted Anaheim police Monday night to report that he was one of the men seen at the Wallace residence.

After meeting with police, the man agreed to be questioned by sheriff’s investigators who now consider him an important witness in the murder case, Olson said.

“He was a suspect until such time as we found out what he was doing (in front of the house),” Olson said. “(Now) he is strictly a witness to us.”

He declined to elaborate.

Olson said investigators are still looking for the second man and for a gold 1970s-model Chevrolet Monte Carlo seen parked in front of the Wallace house on the day of the slaying.

Walt Zwonitzer, a private investigator with Clarke International Investigations, said an arrest of a “primary suspect” is imminent. The Long Beach firm has been hired by the Wallace family to investigate the crime.

“When everything is known, the brutality of this crime will be shocking,” Zwonitzer said.