Bones Identified as Remains of Los Lobos Leader’s Wife

Homicide detectives said Monday that remains unearthed from a shallow grave off Sand Canyon Road in the Santa Clarita Valley have been identified as those of Sandra Rosas, the wife of Los Lobos bandleader Cesar Rosas.

Identification of the bones exhumed Nov. 22 from the grave site near a hilly dirt road was made by using dental records of the woman killed by her half brother, Gabriel Gomez, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Roberta Granek.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has yet to determine a cause of death, authorities said.

Rosas disappeared from her Rowland Heights home Oct. 23, 1999. Gomez was convicted of murder earlier this month. The district attorney alleged that Gomez had been jealous of the family’s fame and wealth.

In what Gomez’s attorney described as “an act of final contrition,” Gomez told detectives where to find the grave, about 400 yards from the 2900 block of Sand Canyon Road.

Sheriff’s homicide Det. Mike Scott has said Gomez probably strangled his half sister and then, by the light of a full moon, drove into the canyon and buried the body.