Authorities on Wednesday positively identified the partially decomposed body found on the desolate outskirts of Moreno Valley as that of Norma Lopez, the 17-year-old high school student who police suspected was abducted after summer school.
The Riverside County coroner’s office made the determination after a morning autopsy.
The body was found Tuesday afternoon by a local resident doing yard work in a remote section of town surrounded by wheat fields, just off Interstate 60.
Exposed to the elements during the recent heat wave, the remains were so decomposed that authorities could not immediately determine the sex of the deceased, let alone tell if it was Lopez's body, said Riverside County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Joe Borja.
Borja said investigators still have no suspects in the case, although a newer model green SUV was seen speeding away from the area where Lopez disappeared.
Lopez was reported missing about 12:30 p.m. Thursday by her older sister, Sonja, after she failed to return home from a summer biology class at Valley Vista High School. She was out of class by 10 a.m. and had plans to meet her older sister and a friend, authorities said.
Investigators said they found some of Norma's belongings, and signs of a struggle, in a vacant field along Cottonwood Avenue, a popular shortcut among students just a few blocks from the school. They are also looking for the driver and passengers of the SUV seen near the field at the time of her disappearance.
Norma was last seen wearing a white, horizontal-striped sleeveless shirt with a floral pattern and black jeans.
Los Angeles Times
