Uncle to Be Arraigned in Girl’s Death

A 44-year-old convicted rapist was charged Monday with the rape and murder of his 12-year-old niece, whose decomposing body was discovered near her Wilmington home in May, authorities said.

Eloy Loy, who had been in custody on a parole violation since Monique Arroyo disappeared May 9, was charged with murder with the special circumstance of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor under the age of 14, making him subject to the death penalty, authorities said. He will be arraigned in San Pedro Municipal Court on July 24.

Monique was last seen by her mother, Rosalina Arroyo, early May 9. The girl’s father, Jose, noticed that she was missing from her second-story bedroom about 5:30 a.m.

That same day, Loy was taken into custody for a parole violation. Although police declined Monday to specify what the violation was, they said Loy was considered a suspect from the start.

After a parole hearing, Loy was sent to state prison about a month ago, said Lt. John Dunkin, head of the homicide division in the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Bureau.

Loy had served 14 years in the state prison in Tehachapi for raping an adult and was released in July, authorities said. He also had been convicted of raping a minor and served three years for that offense, Dunkin said.

Clutching her niece’s hand at a Wilmington park on Monday, Rosalina Arroyo, 51, spoke of the arrest in a tired voice that underlined the agony she has been through since her youngest daughter’s body was found May 13, less than a mile from their home.

“The police said he might be a suspect,” Arroyo said of her brother. “We were hoping and praying it wouldn’t be him.”

Loy had stayed with the family for a few weeks in January to help with yard work, Arroyo said, but at the time of Monique’s disappearance he was living with a brother in Long Beach. While he was staying with the Arroyos, he seemed to pay an undue amount of attention to Monique, spending time joking around with her, Arroyo said.

Arroyo said Loy was the second-youngest of 10 children and that she raised him. She said she found it hard to believe that the brother she loved and cared for would do something like this to her family. “I don’t know how he could treat us that way,” she said.

She recalled buying him new clothes and shoes and taking him out for dinner after his release from prison. But she remembered that her husband was reluctant to let Loy into their home.

“Jose says he should have never let him into his house. He had a feeling all along, but he went along with my concerns for my brother,” she said.

Dunkin said DNA evidence returned from a laboratory two weeks ago made the case strong enough to file charges.

The Arroyo family is one of the oldest in Wilmington, with roots stretching back seven generations. More than 1,000 mourners gathered at Sts. Peter and Paul Church for Monique’s funeral.