Missionary Held in Strangling of Wife

A missionary who had never had any run-ins with the law has been arrested in connection with the strangulation of his wife of 21 years, authorities said Thursday.

Mario Chacon Hernandez, who originally told investigators that his wife had been abducted by two men, was arrested by sheriff’s deputies early Wednesday on suspicion of murder and was being held without bail.

A day earlier, Hernandez, 46, of West 73rd Street in South Los Angeles, led authorities to his wife’s naked body, which had been dumped along Big Tujunga Canyon Road, a few miles above Tujunga, said sheriff’s Lt. Al Grotefend, the lead investigator.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the slaying because the body was found in Angeles National Forest.

Gabrielle Hernandez, 38, appeared to have been strangled, but an autopsy was scheduled for today, Grotefend said.

Sheriff’s deputies first had contact with Hernandez about 9:50 p.m. Monday, when he lost control of his late-model van and crashed while driving down Big Tujunga Canyon Road, Grotefend said. Hernandez was taken to a hospital for minor injuries and authorities stored the van for him.

A few hours later, Hernandez took a taxi back to Los Angeles. He walked into the LAPD’s 77th Street Division station about 2:40 a.m. Tuesday and told police that his wife had been sexually assaulted and killed by two men who had abducted the couple from a fitness center parking lot in Inglewood.

Grotefend said investigators had become suspicious as Hernandez’s story began to change. Hernandez told deputies that his wife had been killed in his van and that the attackers had jumped out of the vehicle in the northeast San Fernando Valley and fled, Grotefend said.

He said Hernandez had told police that he feared he would be blamed for her death. “He indicated that he panicked and drove up to Big Tujunga Canyon and threw her body over the side of the hill,” Grotefend said. “Right away you start becoming suspicious -- and then he crashed his vehicle.”

Then, during an interview with investigators, Hernandez “admitted that he murdered his wife over a domestic issue,” Grotefend said.

Gabrielle Hernandez’s body was found tangled in the brush at the bottom of a small hill off Big Tujunga Canyon Road.

Hernandez had recently returned from El Salvador, where he had been doing missionary work.

It was unclear how long he had been gone, Grotefend said, but he returned to find that his wife had moved out.