Grieving Family Recalls Final Day of Slain Teenage Cousins

It was by chance that Olivia Munguia and Jessica Yvette Zavala found themselves walking to Lynwood High School on Tuesday morning, but it was all the brutal chance a gunman required.

As investigators with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department searched Wednesday for the killer of 17-year-old Olivia and 15-year-old Jessica, family members talked about the girls’ last morning--and final moments--Tuesday.

Jessica’s mother, Petra Zavala, who cared for her daughter and her bubbly cousin, said it was customary for the girls to ride to school with her in the family car. On Tuesday, however, it was decided that the girls would walk to school because the woman was off to a late start--her 8-year-old son was slow in dressing.

Ever since the girls were slain on Muriel Drive, just blocks from their home, Petra Zavala said she has struggled with the idea that things might have turned out differently if the girls were in her car that morning.

“I blamed myself,” Zavala said in Spanish. “But a priest spoke with me and told me, ‘You can’t blame yourself for this, nor blame your son. It isn’t your fault nor his. It was God’s will.’ ”

The girls were shot about 7:45 a.m. as they walked along the residential street. Olivia was struck first. Witnesses said she fell against a utility pole, wrapping her arms tightly around it. Jessica screamed at the spectacle, a scream that neighbors called “indescribable” in its horror and anguish. The gunman shot her.

Although friends and family have pointed to the older girl’s ex-boyfriend as the presumed jealous and jilted killer, the Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday that he was not a suspect.

However, sheriff’s officials said they are looking for him to answer questions.

They identified him as Juan Manuel Casillas, of Lynwood, but would not confirm that he was Olivia’s ex-boyfriend, as family members insist.

The authorities said deputies were called to the Zavala home last Saturday after they received a report of a disturbance at a 15th birthday celebration for Jessica.

The Zavala family said they gave deputies a wallet that they contended the man had dropped when he tried to crash the party.

“We’re seeking to speak with whoever was at the party that night,” said Sheriff’s Capt. R. Doyle Campbell. “We want to see if there’s anything linking the party to the shooting.”

Olivia, who had traveled from the Mexican state of Michoacan to live with her cousin three years ago, wanted to learn English and return to Mexico. She had dreams of being a soap opera star.

Family members say the girls’ deaths were all the more inexplicable because the two cousins were constantly under the watchful eye of Jessica’s mother, and her father, Saul Zavala. It was based mostly on Saul’s reputation as a traditionally stern and conservative parent that Olivia’s mother allowed her to live with the family.

Accompanied always by Jessica’s parents, the two would shop for nail polish and trinkets at swap meets or the mall. The parents even accompanied them to the library. To do otherwise would only invite the troubles of the street, Saul Zavala said Wednesday at the family’s Lynwood home.

Under this close parental watch, the girls had grown very close, referring to themselves as primas, or cousins. The family described them as soul mates, closer even than many sisters.

Petra Zavala recalled what the girls would tell each other: “Yes, we’re cousins until our death.”