Sequels of ’95 : Justice Moves Slowly for Some Victims

The families of four people killed in Los Angeles County on June 12, 1994, the same day Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were killed, say the justice system they saw on television was not the system they experienced in the deaths of their loved ones (“The Other Victims,” March 10).

The death of Jaime Apolonia Moreno, 26, was ruled self-defense, which the family denies. And Michael Knocke pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Cynthia Margaret Siegfried, 30, who was fatally shot while sitting in a car. But arrests have not been made in the slayings of David Wayne Abraham, 29, and Trinidad Flores Velasquez, 27.

Vickie Moreno, 28, still takes her children to the cemetery on weekends to visit their father’s grave. She says her 8-year-old son, Jaime Jr., is afraid to be left alone. “Whenever I go someplace he’s afraid something bad will happen and I won’t come back.”

Phyllis Abraham, 29, of Orange County, says she has lost hope that an arrest will be made in her husband’s death. “I don’t trust people as much now.”

Det. Mike Crowley of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department says he thought there was a break in the case of Velasquez last month, but an Indiana man proved not to be the suspect.

Siegfried left behind two children; one lives in a children’s home, the other with a foster family. Siegfried’s sister, Donna Eastep, says she and her husband are unable to adopt the children because they can barely afford to meet the needs of their own two children.