Home searched, green SUV seized in slaying of Moreno Valley girl

Detectives investigating the death of 17-year-old Norma Lopez in Moreno Valley searched a home and impounded an SUV on Tuesday a few blocks from where the high school student was apparently abducted.

The home on Pegasus Way is also near Valley View High School, which Norma attended. Police believe the teenager was seized the morning of July 15 while she was walking to a friend’s house after a summer school biology class.

Investigators found her purse and signs of a struggle in a vacant field close to the school after her sister reported her missing, and a witness told police he saw a green SUV speeding away from the area shortly after the apparent kidnapping.

“The search warrant was in regards to the Norma Lopez investigation, and we did recover a green SUV at the residence,” said Sgt. Joe Borja of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. “No arrest has been made in connection to the homicide.”

Borja emphasized that the investigation is continuing and that no suspects are in custody. He declined to release further details about the search.

Norma’s disappearance triggered a citywide search until her body was found in a field on the eastern edge of town five days later by a resident doing yard work. The isolated area is just off the 60 Freeway and is surrounded by vast wheat fields.

Neighbors in the quiet, well-kept housing development where the home was searched Tuesday said only that the family that lives there appeared quiet and respectful.

Eric M. Muswaswa, 42, who lives at the house with his wife and son, was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of justice and resisting a police officer on the day the search warrant was executed, Riverside County jail records show. Muswaswa was released later that day on $2,500 bail, records show.

In an interview with CBS2 Wednesday evening, Eric Muswaswa appeared outside his home and through an attorney said his family had nothing to do with Norma’s slaying. The attorney, Miles Clark of Riverside, said investigators who searched the home focused on the couple’s son — Lazarus Tasby, 25 — and removed several items from his room. They also confiscated the family’s green Mitsubishi Montero.

“In no way is Eric or his wife, Wanda, or his son, Lazarus, responsible for the death of anyone,” Clark said.

School records show that Tasby was a teacher’s aide at Valley View High. He worked at the school from March 2007 to November 2009, a district official told the Press-Enterprise. Shortly before leaving the teacher’s aide job, Tasby was charged with soliciting a prostitute in Riverside on Oct. 29, 2009, Riverside County Superior Court records show. He pleaded not guilty and the case is pending.

Norma’s sister Elizabeth Lopez, 18, said the family was relieved to hear that the investigation was progressing but remains distraught that the killer is still at large.

Although the family has received regular updates on the investigation from sheriff’s detectives, they learned about Tuesday’s search from a television reporter, she said. No one in her family knows the owners of the home that was searched, she said.

“I’m really hoping that this is the person that we’ve been looking for all this time,” Elizabeth Lopez said Wednesday morning. “We don’t want to go years and years until we know who actually did this.”

Inside the Lopez home, the family has created a small altar with Norma’s photograph and a few of her prized belongings.

“My mother prays there every day,” Elizabeth Lopez said.

Investigators told the family they believe that two or three people may have been involved in Norma’s abduction and murder, since it would have been hard for one person to grab the 17-year-old in broad daylight, Lopez said.

Detectives have focused on tracking down the green SUV that was seen speeding away, expanding the search across the state, she said.

The homicide triggered widespread fear among parents and teenagers in Moreno Valley. Authorities encouraged residents to be cautious and vigilant and to avoid walking alone in isolated areas.

phil.willon@latimes.com