Family, Friends Mourn Slain Oak View Girl

On the day when they should have been celebrating Kali Manley’s life, Charles and Holly Manley mourned their daughter’s death Tuesday and joined a community who had come to say goodbye to a vibrant teen killed a week before her 15th birthday.

“Kali was a part of this valley,” Charles Manley told hundreds of family, friends and high school students gathered at Ojai Valley Community Valley Church. “Her spirit was filled with these mountains. She was a part of the canyon. It was there she could feel open and radiate her love.”

It was in those chaparral-covered hills that Manley’s body was found last weekend in an icy drainage pipe after a massive search that had galvanized the Ojai community.

The abrupt and apparently violent end to her life came after what authorities said was a night of partying with 22-year-old Ojai resident David Alvarez, a man with a violent history and who Manley barely knew.

Authorities said Manley was spending the night at a girlfriend’s house on Dec. 19 when Alvarez and another friend, Robert Miears, stopped by to hang out with the teenagers. Shortly after midnight, Manley left with Alvarez and Miears and ended up at a nearby mobile home, where Manley stepped into a bedroom with Alvarez, authorities said.

It was the last time anyone saw her alive.

In the days that followed, about 1,200 volunteers trudged through brush and combed rugged canyon areas searching for the girl. That search ended on Saturday when Alvarez agreed to take authorities to the body. Alvarez will be booked on suspicion of murder this week, authorities said.

Detectives have not released details on how Manley was killed.

While authorities continued their investigation into her slaying, Manley’s friends and family spent Tuesday afternoon at two ceremonies celebrating her life and bringing closure to her death.

The first was a solemn service at Ojai Valley Community Church led by Pastor Paul Bergmann. He urged the people seated before an altar of flowers and an oversized picture of Manley to embrace the positive memories of her life.

He spoke of lessons to be learned and told the crowd to let go of the rage and hurt brought on by the slaying.

“Kali was a loving kid and she would not want us to deal with what has happened with anger . . . or revenge,” Bergmann said. “Death rears its ugly head and reminds us we all live on borrowed time and we are all vulnerable.” The pastor also spoke of the rough road that lies ahead for the girl’s family.

“The Manley family is going to walk through sacred ground in the months ahead,” Bergmann said. “I pray and trust God will walk with you.”

At the close of the service, Charles Manley took a few minutes to share memories of his daughter, a sweet though sometime mischievous girl who loved her cat and the mountains that flanked her Oak View home.

“It is there that we will spread her ashes and it is there that we will go to speak with her and she will speak to us,” said Manley, through a voice thick with emotion.

After the service, the family joined a crowd of hundreds of teenagers for a celebration at Nordhoff High School, where Manley was a freshman.

Before the gathering began, Charles Manley spoke to reporters about his daughter’s high-profile slaying and how much his family was moved by the community’s show of support.

“We’re all holding up great,” he said. “We’ll get through this.”

Manley asked the crowd of teenagers to refrain from using alcohol and drugs.

Together, the teenage mourners burned incense, lighted candles and ignited a huge bonfire in their friend’s memory. Rock music blared from stereo speakers.

“This is probably how she would have wanted it,” said Jenny Ming, 15, of Oak View, who has known Manley since the third grade. “The past couple of days have been hard, but this helps get over it more.”

Standing beside her, 16-year-old Keri Hart, a Nordhoff junior who shared a gym class with Manley, said the bohemian-style memorial service was the perfect way to help ease the family’s and the community’s pain.

“You can really tell how caring people can be,” Hart said. “I think her family and she really deserve it.”

Times staff writer Tina Dirmann contributed to this story.