Police identify one of two women found dead in Montecito Heights park
Los Angeles Times
Thursday 29 October, 2015
By Ruben Vives, Nicole Santa Cruz, Stephen Ceasar, and Kate Mather
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-women-dead-montecito-heights-park-20151029-story.html
“The meandering trails of Ernest E. Debs Regional Park are normally bustling with early-morning hikers, joggers and dog walkers.
But on Thursday, less than a day after the bodies of a young woman and a teenage girl were discovered in bushes on a hillside, an eerie stillness fell over the picturesque park.”
*
“LAPD Capt. Martin Baeza identified one of the victims as 19-year-old Gabriela Jennifer Calzada. Detectives believe they have identified the second victim, a 17-year-old, but were waiting for coroner’s officials to confirm, LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said Thursday afternoon.
It was unclear how long the bodies had been at the park before they were discovered.
Smith said that the two had suffered blunt-force trauma, but the LAPD was waiting for coroner’s officials to determine the cause of death. Detectives were trying to determine where they were killed, Smith said, but believe their bodies were in the park for a “short period of time.””
*
“A 53-year-old woman, who declined to give her name because she feared for her safety, said she and a group of friends were working out at the park about 11 a.m. Wednesday when they came across two young women who appearded (sic) to be in their 20s on a trail.
She didn’t know whether they were the same two whose bodies were later found. As she and her friends continued, they passed a man who was wearing a cap and carrying a backpack. The man quickly turned his cap forward and looked away from them as he passed. Then he blasted rock music.
She said she was startled by the music and told her friends, “Hurry up, let's walk faster.”
The woman said she and her friends have been working out at the park for several years, but now that may change.
“We are never coming back here again because we are scared,” she said.”