Witnesses Sought in Teen Death

A dozen sheriff’s detectives fanned out across Ventura County on Friday, interviewing potential witnesses who saw a 19-year-old college student before she was suffocated and her partially clothed body stuffed in a drainage pipe early New Year’s Day.

Sheriff Bob Brooks said investigators are talking with people who attended the New Year’s Eve party in Fillmore from which Valerie Zavala drove two friends home after midnight, then disappeared.

A former boyfriend, whom the teenager intended to visit after dropping off the partygoers, was among those interviewed, the sheriff said.

“It’s too much to say he’s the obvious suspect,” Brooks said. “All those interviews and potential suspects are still being worked, so he hasn’t been included or excluded as a suspect. ... Certainly anyone she saw that evening was a potential suspect.”

Brooks would not comment on details of the case, except to say that detectives are seeking information from anyone who saw the car in which Zavala was last seen: a black, four-door 2003 Toyota Corolla.

Meanwhile, the Ventura County coroner reported Friday that Zavala, a former Fillmore High School cheerleader and honor student who was attending San Jose State University, died of asphyxiation.

No drugs or alcohol were found in her system. Her body is being tested for signs of sexual assault, authorities said.

As investigators pressed for leads, Zavala’s friends and family prepared for her funeral on Tuesday at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Fillmore.

Her longtime friends recalled how exuberant she was at what turned out to be her final New Year’s Eve celebration.

“She was happy, peppy, smiling, laughing,” said 19-year-old Denise Hurtado, who held the party with her sister Tina, 27. “She was just so excited to see everyone.”

Zavala, Denise Hurtado and Robert Padilla were inseparable during high school. The girls treated lanky Robert, now a construction worker, as a pal, sending him notes during class and decorating his long arms with stars and inked greetings. Once they cajoled him into wearing a pink glittery bracelet -- which he kept on around them, if not his male friends, for three months.

“They were always getting me in trouble,” said Padilla, 19. “They’d be talking in class, and the teacher would come down on me -- because I was the guy.”

The old friends had last seen Zavala when she was home in November for a funeral.

Mario Arias, another friend from their Class of 2001, had died in his sleep, apparently of an aneurysm.

In 1998 another class member -- their good friend Rosanna Porras -- had died after collapsing at soccer practice.

She was found to have an undiagnosed heart condition.

“It’s such a sad way to reunite,” said Tina Hurtado, a nurse’s assistant. “Why does it have to be like this?”

The party on New Year’s Eve was something of a tradition, with the Hurtado sisters opening their family’s home to the same crowd of high school friends for the past few years.

This year, it was not notably loud or large.

About 30 people dropped in, with most leaving by 2 a.m. Zavala drove Padilla’s cousin, a 19-year-old woman, and a 17-year-old youth home.

The cousin had quite a bit to drink, Padilla said, and Zavala borrowed her car to take her home.

That was the Toyota police seized after finding it in a Fillmore shopping center parking lot New Year’s Day, Padilla said.

Zavala’s slaying has left her friends shaken.

“I’m constantly looking around,” said Tina Hurtado. “This morning I ran out front just to get to my car. I’ve got this terrible feeling that someone’s out there. I shouldn’t have to feel this way.”

At her home, Zavala’s relatives somberly gathered, speaking in quiet tones and taking care of a hundred details on their cell phones.

Her sisters -- Kirsten Wilson, 14, and Jessica Wilson, 15 -- talked about Zavala as the family peacemaker.

“When we were fighting, she would stop us,” Jessica said. “She was like our second mom.”

She was particularly close to her 9-year-old brother, Kevin. One favorite family story is that the first word Kevin ever uttered was her name.

Zavala was planning to take the coming semester off. She wanted to make some money and take a break from the stress of academics, Kirsten said.

“She had to be the best at everything,” she said, adding that her sister intended to return to San Jose State later this year. While at college, Zavala lived with her grandparents in San Jose.

Norma Jean Wilson, her grandmother, was with the rest of the family in Fillmore.

In the yard, she told a visitor that she had lost a 3-month-old baby to sudden infant death syndrome, but the tragedy of her granddaughter’s death was even more profound. “Parents are not supposed to bury their children,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s supposed to be the other way around. What kind of evil world do we live in?”

Sheriff Brooks said that nothing about the young woman suggested she was anything but an innocent victim. “She certainly shows every indication of being a typical, well-balanced, responsible 19-year-old,” he said.

The sheriff said it was far too early in the investigation to guess when the case will be solved. “We can’t even estimate,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of work to be done and an awful lot of people to be talked to.... There’s far too much that’s not known at this point.”