CA - Carla Salazar, 35, transgender, murdered, Santa Ana, 28 June 1989

Salazar was killed June 28, 1989, in her fourth floor apartment in Santa Ana and may have been seen earlier that evening in an elevator with a man, according to published accounts.

The Times reported at the time that she was found by a friend and the manager of the apartment. She suffered multiple stab wounds. The friend was alarmed because she had not come to work, the report said.

Salazar’s slaying is among scores of transgender killings listed on the U.C. Riverside LGBT Resource Center web page.

Click to expand...

Douglas Gregory Gutridge, 63, was questioned about 35-year-old Carla Salazar's death in the initial murder investigation but Santa Ana police detectives did not have sufficient information to make an arrest, according to the Orange County Cold Case Homicide Task Force.

In 2008, Santa Ana cold case investigators submitted forensic evidence from the crime to the county crime lab and male DNA evidence was identified. Later that year, the detectives obtained DNA evidence form Gutridge...

The suspect was interviewed and arrested at his Lodi home on Dec. 9. His bail was set at $1 million,. He is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 2 in Santa Ana jail.

Click to expand...

A 63-year-old man will remain behind bars in lieu of $1 million bail after pleading not guilty Friday to the murder of a Santa Ana woman more than two decades ago...

Salazar, a transgender woman who lived alone in her Santa Ana apartment, was found stabbed to death in June 1989. Gutridge, who was 37 at the time, contacted detectives after reading news accounts of the killing, claiming to be the last person to see her alive...

Authorities allege that heightened DNA technology allowed forensic scientists at the county crime lab to determine that Gutridge had placed his hands on Salazar's body. Gutridge was taken into custody at his Lodi home in mid-December, marking the first arrest for the cold case task force.

Click to expand...