Billboard Shines Again Despite Plan to Keep Lights Off

Thousands of spectators once again made the trip to Chula Vista to view a “miraculous” billboard, despite police assurances that the lights illuminating the signpost would not be turned on.

In fact, many left the scene disappointed before the lights were finally turned on shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday.

For more than a week, onlookers have been visiting the site, saying that the billboard depicts a likeness of Laura Arroyo, a 9-year-old San Diego girl who was snatched from her home and murdered last month.

Earlier Saturday, Chula Vista police had indicated that an official of the billboard company had informed authorities that the lights would not be switched on in an effort to defuse the nightly spectacle.

Police had voiced concerns that the thousands of visitors in cars and on foot could create a safety hazard along Beyer Boulevard, where the billboard is situated.

Frank Sanchez, an executive of the billboard company, could not be reached for comment late Saturday.

The perceived image has only been visible after night-time illumination of the three timer lights at the base of the billboard. Each fixture contains a 400-watt bulb.

Authorities say it is the play of light and shadow on the blank white billboard that has created what many interpret as the blurry outline of a young girl in repose. Others say they see additional figures--perhaps even the girl’s murderer--in the billboard.

Intrigued onlookers have been stopping to gaze at the billboard for more than a week, but huge crowds began arriving Thursday after extensive media attention to what many quickly came to view as a miracle. The site promptly became a nocturnal shrine, drawing thousands of believers, mostly Latino Catholics from the South Bay area of San Diego County.

A total of more than 20,000 people descended on the site on Thursday and Friday evenings, police said, and Saturday’s crowd also numbered in the thousands.

On recent evenings, traffic has backed up for more than a mile in every direction from the billboard, which is posted along Beyer Boulevard, about a quarter-mile south of the intersection of Broadway and Main Street.