Child Who Fell Victim to Violence Lives On in Photo

It was some years ago. But I could never forget the photograph.

It was of Patricia Lopez, a 9-year-old Santa Ana girl who had disappeared and was later found beaten to death in the Santa Ana River bed.

To look at the photograph is to believe in innocence. In it, Patricia is smiling. Her long, dark hair rests over her left shoulder in one big braid. Her left cheek has the hint of a dimple. Then there are the eyes: dark, bright and as wide as outdoors.

Reading about the bizarre events in the Richard Lucio DeHoyos criminal case jogged my memory of Patricia, who disappeared June 3, 1987, about half a mile from where DeHoyos’ victim, Nadia Puente, was abducted. Both girls were the same age. Both came from the same city. Both disappeared while on their way home from school.

But in Patricia’s case, there was no criminal defendant who barked like a dog and growled in court. Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard King, who supervises homicide prosecutors, recalled Patricia’s murder in a conversation last week but said that although a case has been presented by police to the district attorney’s office against a suspect, no one has been charged with her murder.

Patricia was last seen alive that afternoon in June as she left Monte Vista Elementary School. It was summer-like weather; the streets were full of children playing.

She was supposed to meet her mother, as she did every school day, at the corner of Center Street and McFadden Avenue. Her mother arrived at the corner about five minutes late and did not see Patricia. The girl’s battered body was found two days later, about 2 miles away in a drainpipe in the Santa Ana River channel below the Fairview Street bridge.

Like the photograph, there are other things I recall from the time of her disappearance. I remember her father, Ascension Lopez, looking exhausted after a night spent scouring the neighborhood for his baby, whom he affectionately called his “Little Negrita, “ because of her dark skin.

Their home was simple, well-kept. Their grief, obvious. As a reporter, I was the intruder, invading their privacy at a time of high emotion.

Reporters are called on to do that a lot. But because something about Patricia’s disappearance touched me personally, I can vividly recall conversations with the family, police and other members of the media.

Before her body was found, I wanted to believe that her story would have a happy ending. She would be found alive and returned to her family. Who could harm such a beautiful child?

I remember talking to a veteran police officer who was part of a task force that searched the neighborhood immediately after Patricia disappeared.

“This one’s special,” he told me. “I’ve got kids Patricia’s age. We don’t like anyone taking our children in Santa Ana.”

I remember talking to neighbors who were upset and fearful that such a violent crime could have happened in their neighborhood.

I showed Patricia’s photograph to Don Kelsen, a photographer for The Times and a veteran of hundreds of news events, some happy and some sad. He instantly recalled the child and mentioned that he was assigned to photograph Patricia’s funeral.

“It was the most touching funeral I’ve ever been to,” Kelsen said. “Her mother literally fell upon the girl’s casket, weeping. All of us in the media just looked at each other and our shoulders slumped.”

Many of us in the press are pack rats of sorts, collectors of mementos of stories gone by. Before each new year, in late December, I go through my desk, rummaging through old stuff. Some things I file elsewhere. Other things I just toss away.

But I’ve never been able to discard Patricia’s photograph.

I have this haunting belief that if I do, then something bad will happen to me. So from time to time, I check inside my drawer to make sure it’s still there. And from time to time, I ask police whether or not they’ve found her killer.

I don’t think Patricia wants me to forget her.