Man with two wives killed one, sheriff says

Authorities say Francisco Yanes Valdivia married a woman to get his green card; problem was, he already had a wife.

On Tuesday, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office booked Valdivia and his wife, Rosalina Lopez, on suspicion of murder, saying the couple killed Vadivia’s other wife, Cecilia Bravo Cabrera.

Cabrera hasn’t been seen or heard from for more than six months — not even on her beloved social media feeds — and investigators say they’re sure she’s dead.

The 30-year-old mother of four was last seen just after midnight on June 9 leaving the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, Calif., in her gray 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. Five hours later, California Highway Patrol officers and firefighters found her car torched in an orchard near the small town of Traver, roughly 17 miles north of Visalia.

Valdivia, who is from Mexico, married Cabrera with the intent to gain legal residency in the United States, according to Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux. At the time of the marriage, Valdivia was married to Lopez, who was also from Mexico.

“We do believe the motive surrounds this relationship with three people,” Boudreaux said. “It’s complex, very.”

Boudreaux declined to say whether Cabrera knew her husband was married to another woman.

Investigators gathered “significant digital forensic evidence” to arrest Valdivia and Lopez, Boudreaux said.

Valdivia, 37, and Lopez, 39, were booked on suspicion of murder, he said. The Visalia couple are being held without bail.

“Clearly, this is a circumstantial case, but we are both comfortable and confident in our belief that Cecilia Bravo Cabrera was murdered,” the sheriff said at a news conference.

After finding her car, CHP officers went to Cabrera’s home. Family members told the officers that she had gone out with Valdivia the night before, authorities said. The husband and wife had left in her Chevrolet. She had not returned home, so at that point, her family filed a missing person report with the officers.

Detectives from the sheriff’s violent-crimes unit decided to take over the case and began digging into Cabrera’s disappearance, which they deemed suspicious.

Before she disappeared, Cabrera was “very active” on social media, authorities said. But her social media activity stopped the day she disappeared.

Months passed and Cabrera’s four children still hadn’t heard from her.

Detectives followed numerous tips about her disappearance and spent many hours looking for her, but her body has yet to be located, authorities said.

During the course of the investigation, detectives discovered that Valdivia and Lopez had been married in Mexico sometime before 2007. Cabrera was born in Bakersfield, the sheriff said.

Boudreaux said he was confident that Valdivia and Lopez are responsible for her death.

The couple had made threats on her life, he said.

“Our hearts go out to the Cabrera family,” Boudreaux said. “We understand the difficulties they have been facing and what stress the process of court will bring.”

Anyone with details about Cabrera is urged to call the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office at (559) 733-6218 or email TCSO@tipnow.com.

To read the article in Spanish, click here

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

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