Stabbing victim found off Angeles Crest Highway was reported missing from San Bernardino in 2012
A woman whose body was discovered Sunday near Angeles Crest Highway north of La Cañada Flintridge has been identified as 21-year-old Raylynn Josephine-Deanne Hernandez, a coroner’s spokesman confirmed Wednesday.
Hernandez’s name and date of birth match a missing person’s report issued by San Bernardino Police Department in 2012.
The report indicates that Hernandez, then 16, had last been seen on May 25, 2012. She was described as having brown eyes and dyed red hair, in addition to star tattoos on her left wrist and the name “Leyla” with two hearts tattooed on her right forearm. Lt. Mike Madden, a spokesman for the San Bernardino Police Department, said the missing person’s report was last issued on Sept. 8, 2013.
“On Dec. 30, 2014, we were notified by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department that she’d been located and, by that point, she had been declared an emancipated minor,” Madden said Wednesday. “We removed her from the missing person’s system. That was our last communication.”
According to a release issued Sunday night by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau, a hiker near Angeles Crest Highway around 1:30 p.m. Sunday saw Hernandez’s body near Mile Marker 30.45.
Investigators said the victim had stab wounds and apparently been dumped off a steep hillside just off the road.
Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter confirmed Wednesday the body was that of Hernandez. An autopsy indicating the official cause of death was pending.
Cardine writes for Times Community News
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
