Arrest in 1986 Murder Case Leads Police to Woman Held in Shack

A woman who told police she was raped repeatedly while being held prisoner for nine months was freed from a hillside shack south of Dodger Stadium after police officers made a chance arrest of her alleged captor in an unrelated murder case, authorities said Friday.

The woman, 35, who was not identified, was taken to an area hospital, where she was reported in good condition, Los Angeles Police Lt. Ken Espiau said.

Police and county authorities have arranged for housing for the woman who requested that her identity and whereabouts not be disclosed. Espiau said she had no relatives in the area.

Juan Miguel Duran, 30, was arrested Thursday morning on murder charges in connection with the 1986 slaying of a woman in Chinatown, after a detective happened to spot him walking down a street in Chinatown about 11 a.m.

Veteran robbery Detective Ray Broker was cruising through Chinatown when he spotted Duran. Officers arrested him without incident, just a few blocks from the home of the murder victim, Ester Quan, 68.

“While en route to the station, he voluntarily told officers he had to go home to let someone out,” Espiau said. Duran directed officers to a hillside in the 1700 block of Stadium Way, where he pointed out a small wooden shack partially obscured by foliage, Espiau said. Officers broke a padlock off the shack’s only door and found the woman, Espiau said.

“As you can imagine, she was very grateful,” said Espiau. The woman told officers she had been held against her will by Duran since June, 1990, when she said she was abducted in Chinatown.

The woman told officers she had been sexually attacked repeatedly, “but was otherwise in pretty good physical condition,” said Espiau. She was taken to an undisclosed area hospital and released.

The shack, on a hillside south of Dodger Stadium near the Naval-Marine Center in Elysian Park, was “by no means a house, but was sturdy and made of wood,” Espiau said.

Authorities are now considering filing additional charges of kidnaping and rape against Duran.

Officers identified Duran as a murder suspect after a computer linked him to fingerprints found at the home of the victim. The Automated Fingerprint Identification System has led to several arrests nationwide, including the arrest of a Minnesota man in December in connection with a killing which occurred 28 years ago in Hollywood.

Espiau said Duran had initially become a suspect because of the similarities found in the Quan murder-robbery and other crimes in the Chinatown area.