Police Find Body in Van of Missing Valley Shop Owner

The van belonging to a missing San Fernando boot store owner was found at a Mission Hills shopping center Sunday with a body inside, authorities said.

The owner, Juan Adolfo Herrera, 47, last spoke by phone to his wife, Luz, shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday from his shop, El Rodeo Boots, in the 1000 block of Maclay Avenue. When she later drove to the shop, Herrera was gone, as was the store’s van.

Shortly after 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Los Angeles sheriff’s investigators found the van at a shopping center at Rinaldi Street and Laurel Canyon Boulevard, said San Fernando Police Lt. Dan Peavy.

They discovered a body inside, but neither Peavy, the coroner’s office nor the Sheriff’s Department would confirm it was Herrera.

But Herrera’s sister-in-law, Veronica Galindo, said Sunday night that authorities had asked family members to go downtown and identify the body.

“They said probably it’s him,” she said.

At the store, signs of a violent struggle were evident Sunday morning. There was blood on the carpet, door frames and some cardboard boxes, as well as a trail of blood leading out onto the sidewalk and curb.

On the wall was a poster for the 1996 action movie “La Mafia de Durango,” in which he had a role.

The shop, which opened in 1998, had been the target of a robbery attempt by two men earlier this month, said Luz Herrera, the only salesperson in the store at the time.

“They put a gun to me,” she said. “Another person saw what was happening and yelled that he was going to call the police. The men ran away.”

Other shop owners on the commercial street said they had also been the target of recent robberies.