Andrea Vazquez – newest: Suspect arrested in homicide of California teen ‘kidnapped’ from carpark

Whitter Police Department say that they’ve arrested 20-year-old Gabriel Esparza as the primary suspect within the case and charged him with homicide and kidnapping.

Police stated Mr Esparza, a Whittier resident, was arrested at his job Monday within the metropolis of Lakewood.

He has since been booked into the Whittier Police Department and is being held with out bail.

Just a day earlier than they had been delivered tragic information of Vazquez’s loss of life, her household and neighborhood members had gathered at Penn Park, the place the teenager was kidnapped, to carry a vigil for her secure return.

“I’ve never experienced a heartbreak like this,” Vazquez’s sister Edlyn Vazquez informed KTLA on Monday. “I’m just trying to stay strong for her because I know she’ll be back.”

Investigators say that Vazquez’s boyfriend was together with her when she was kidnapped from a parked automobile at Penn Park in Whittier.

He fled the gunfire and when he returned to the automobile he “discovered blood” close by and Ms Vasquez gone.

Police say that the case can be offered to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s workplace on Wednesday.

Vasquez was a style design pupil at Fullerton College and likewise labored at a mall in Cerritos.

Officials say that her physique was discovered late on Monday night time and that the sufferer’s household had been knowledgeable on Tuesday morning.

“This is not the outcome they wanted, but they do realize Whittier Police worked around the clock,” stated Moses Castillo, a former LAPD detective and advocate for the household. “Their pain and grief is beyond description.”

The sufferer was shot and kidnapped from Penn Park in Whittier after she had been sitting in a parked automobile together with her boyfriend.

Emily Martinez, a relative of Vazquez, informed Fox News Digital earlier than her physique was discovered on Monday that the 19-year-old had been working together with her sister Edlyn, who’s a lash artist.

Ms Martinez had described Vazquez as a “beautiful person” who was preferred by everybody who met her.

“We went to Cancun on a trip,” Martinez stated. “It was storming, and she would be that girl who would run into the pool in full makeup and a dress. She was the one who was willing to make you laugh even if it meant embarrassing herself.”

“We’ve been here praying with my aunt and my uncle,” a cousin of Vazquez informed FOX11 on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, we were notified of Andrea being found. We are devastated. My uncle and my aunt are heartbroken. We have good strong family support so we are just here trying to process this, it’s hard. She was our baby cousin, just 19 years old. Such a senseless act, it shouldn’t have happened”

Officials say that the physique was discovered late on Monday night time and that the sufferer’s household had been knowledgeable on Tuesday morning.

“This is not the outcome they wanted, but they do realize Whittier Police worked around the clock,” stated Moses Castillo, a former LAPD detective and advocate for the household. “Their pain and grief is beyond description.”

The sufferer was shot and kidnapped from Penn Park in Whittier after she had been sat in a parked automobile together with her boyfriend.

Investigators say that the boyfriend fled the gunfire and when he returned to the automobile he “discovered blood” close to it and Ms Vasquez had gone.

The physique of 19-year-old Andrea Vasquez, 19, was found in an open subject in Moreno Valley, not removed from the place her household say her telephone final pinged.

Whitter Police Department say that they’ve arrested 20-year-old Gabriel Esparza as the primary suspect within the case and charged him with homicide and kidnapping.

Police stated Mr Esparza, a Whittier resident, was arrested at his job Monday within the metropolis of Lakewood. He has since been booked into the Whittier Police Department and is being held with out bail.