Interviews Conducted in Girl’s Death

Sheriff’s officials said Thursday they were continuing their investigation into the slaying of Kali Manley through interviews with people who may have seen the prime suspect in the hours after the teen was last seen alive.

The 14-year-old Oak View girl was last seen alive with 22-year-old David Alvarez in the early morning of Dec. 20. Six days later, Alvarez led authorities to Manley’s body, which had been stuffed in a drainage pipe at Pine Mountain.

Autopsy results indicate Manley was strangled. Further chemical tests are being done to determine whether she was sexually assaulted, Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Regan said.

Alvarez remained jailed Thursday night on unrelated charges of brandishing a weapon and making a terrorist threat to another woman hours before Manley disappeared. Bail has been set at $250,000. He has not been charged in Manley’s death.

Regan said detectives spent Thursday in Ojai interviewing four people who may have seen Alvarez in the hours after Manley disappeared.

“We are trying to reconstruct what happened that Sunday,” Regan said. He declined to give details of the interviews.

Regan said he didn’t know when the murder case would be presented to prosecutors for review. Meanwhile, Alvarez is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in the other case.