Public’s Help Sought in Highland Park Killings : Crime: Police say they have no clues in the Jan. 2, 1993, strangling of a 23-year-old woman and her 3-year-old daughter.

Even in a neighborhood known for its gang activity and occasional weekend murders, the crime was especially brutal: Veronica Ultreras, 23, and her 3-year-old daughter were found dead inside their burning Highland Park duplex on the morning of Jan. 2, 1993.

At first, investigators speculated that they might have been the victims of a Christmas tree fire, or a blaze triggered by a cigarette dropped on a sofa. But police later determined that the mother and child were strangled by an assailant and left to perish in an arson fire.

On Monday, police and the victims’ family members begged for the public’s help in solving the crime. Detectives say they have run out of leads.

“There are a lot of unsolved homicides,” Los Angeles Police Detective Steve Spear said at a news conference outside the duplex where the slayings occurred. “But it’s unusual not to have any leads. We have canvassed the neighborhood, we have knocked on every door.

“Nothing. Zero.”

Spear said the crime is even more haunting because of indications that it could be linked to the theft of Ultreras’ purse, which was stolen from her car outside her North Avenue 50 home in September, 1993.

The purse was later found by police in an alley about two blocks from the duplex. Although the driver’s license and other forms of identification were left inside, pictures of Ultreras had been meticulously cut from the cards and removed.

“Maybe whoever stole her purse became enamored with her because she was a very pretty woman,” Spear said. “If he was that enamored with her looks, did he lay in wait and come back? We don’t know.”

Firefighters were called to the house on the morning of the slayings after residents reported seeing a Christmas tree on fire. Ultreras was found near the burning tree in the living room. Her daughter Cynthia was found submerged in a bathtub.

Ultreras’ husband, who was at work at a nearby Echo Park dry cleaner at the time of the slayings, said he is frustrated that police have been unable to solve the case.

“My heart is broken,” said Rodolfo Ultreras, who is now living with an uncle. “Not knowing who did this makes it worse.”

He said he and his wife and daughter had been living in the small, beige duplex for about a year before the killings. Veronica Ultreras had been working as a teacher’s assistant and had hoped someday to become a teacher.

“She was real outgoing and smart,” said Elizabeth Adame, Ultreras’ sister. “She never had any problems with anyone. . . . What kind of sick person would do this?”

It’s a question that troubles the neighbors who live along North Avenue 50. They have become accustomed to gang killings and the sound of gunfire at night, they say.

Still, residents say the attack on the mother and child has served as a reminder that no one is safe from violence in the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood.

“I’m scared, everyone is scared,” said one neighbor, who asked not to be identified. “I want to move out of here.”

In renewing their call for assistance, police and the Los Angeles City Council have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers.

Police said they are looking for a woman who reported the fire at the duplex. She is not considered a suspect, but detectives want to talk to her to find out what she saw that day.

The woman, believed to be white or Latino and in her 50s, was driving a light-colored, late-model vehicle.

“She happened to be driving by,” Spear said. “She parked across the street and began banging on doors to alert the neighbors to the fire.”