GUILTY CA - Celena Valle, 15, Hanford, 27 February 2004

Authorities in Hanford continue to search for a missing teenager.
Celena Valle was last seen in north Hanford on February 27th.

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/news/031604_nw_missing.html

Police seek help to find missing teen
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/sv/v-textonly/story/8273399p-9116158c.html

police are still looking for this child. there has been some tips but for now nothing positive. some of the tips indicate that she may have been killed.

celenas body may have been found just checked on the news out in california, police have found a female body. sadly I feel this may be the child they have been looking for. more on this today in the news papers at abc30.com

Good job finding that information Danny! Keep us posted on what you find out. Sounds like she new who these guys were!

hey johnny, when I had first read about this I had the same thought that she either knew 1 or all of the men she got in the car with. maybe if she had known them for some time, just maybe someone may remember more details as to who they could be. I had read just real recent that they had info that she had been killed and dumped there. maybe one of the perps made a call to allow her to be found, maybe there is some evidence left behind?

It's her.

The Hanford police treated this as if she was a runaway at first. I saw her dad on the news this morning...this was before the confirmation on the body.

Seeker said:

It's her.

The Hanford police treated this as if she was a runaway at first. I saw her dad on the news this morning...this was before the confirmation on the body.

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Recieved this from a group website for HS alumni. Went to High School with her Father......

LEMOORE -- Hanford police and a forensic team from the FBI searched
for leads Monday into the death of a girl believed to be Celena
Valle, whose body was found southeast of The Palace Indian Gaming
Center.

Not much more than tumbleweeds grows where the body was discovered
Sunday. Wheat, alfalfa and dairies dominate the landscape, with the
casino rising in the distance through the haze.

It's here that Cecil Valle's monthlong search for his missing 15-year-
old daughter may have ended.

"I've been waiting and waiting since [Sunday] night," Valle said. "I
still haven't heard anything. I know it might be her, even though I
don't want it to be."

Hanford police would not say the body was Celena's, but did say it
was clothed in garments similar to what she was last seen wearing. It
also fit her physical description.

Kings County coroner's officials will use dental records to make a
positive identification in the next few days.

Investigators have made no arrests in the case but have interviewed
several witnesses.

On Feb. 27, Celena left her father's house wearing a red, hooded
sweat shirt, jeans and white platform tennis shoes and headed to a
house party in Hanford.

police arrest suspect.. new update

From the beginning, the two sides of Celena's family have clashed over every aspect of the case.

Cecil Valle reported his daughter missing to Hanford police Feb. 28 when she failed to return from a party at a friend's house.

He also called Cheri, who lives in Lake County. Cheri and Travis Lyons immediately hired a private investigator to find Celena, but no one from Lake County came to Hanford.

To this day, neither Cheri nor Travis Lyons has come to Hanford, even after the body believed to be Celena's was found. Travis Lyons said he was concerned that his anger with Cecil Valle would cause disruptions and said his wife is overcome with her grief.

Police say that during their first conversations with Cecil Valle, he told them his daughter had run away once but had stayed in contact with her family the entire time.

Cecil Valle also told police his daughter might have used marijuana in the past, but she was not a regular user and had not experimented with stronger narcotics.

At first, the Lyons family mirrored those statements, but quickly began to blame Cecil for Celena's disappearance.

"What was he doing letting her go to a party with people he knew were using drugs?" Travis Lyons said. "He is like a Disneyland dad, letting the kids do whatever they want. That's why Celena wanted to be there with him; there are no controls."

Though they initially believed Celena was a runaway, Hanford police patrol officers began searching for the teenager and investigators interviewed other people who had been at the party.

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/sv/story/8391187p-9224693c.html

This should be moved to the located forum.

Seems they think it was a drug overdose.

http://www.newzcentral.com/articles/2004/04/02/front/daily03.txt

police now believe the body found near a california casino is that of celena valles. http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/news/041304_nw_valle.html

From July 2005:

http://hanfordsentinel.com/news/ban...cle_e3206248-28e0-5307-ac6d-2713b8672f45.html

Richard Banuelos was sentenced this morning in Kings County Superior Court to 11 years in state prison, after pleading no contest on June 1 to the voluntary manslaughter of Celena Valle...

Banuelos, 38, of Armona, drove 15-year-old Celena Valle of Hanford, and Derrick Loftis, 34, of Hanford, to a local motel where Loftis supplied Valle with the methamphetamines that killed her on Feb. 28, 2004. The pair opted not to seek medical treatment for Valle when she became sick. When she died, Loftis and Banuelos dumped her body on the Santa Rosa Rancheria...

Loftis was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years on Friday. He pleaded no contest to a second degree murder charge five weeks prior to the sentencing.

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