Body found in Chino identified as missing woman

San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner officials have confirmed a body found last week in Chino was that of Lorna Lopez, a woman initially reported missing who police now believe was slain by her husband.

The remains of Lopez, 40, were found Thursday in a field off the 17300 block of Cucamonga Avenue, a dusty stretch of south Chino with two-lane highways, dirt lots and muddy embankments.

Lopez and her husband, Victor Manuel Lopez, 40, were reported missing March 13. Their three children told authorities they had not seen their parents since the morning of March 12 as they got ready for school.

Police found photographs of Victor Lopez hours later that day at an automated teller machine, but there was no sign of his wife. Lorna Lopez had apparently told her husband she planned to divorce him.

The investigation led police Thursday to Victor Lopez’s nephew, Joseph Rodriguez of Huntington Park. Police said evidence found at his home led them to conclude Lorna Lopez’s disappearance was a result of foul play.

Gavin Smith had relationship with drug dealer's wife, police say

Missing Fox movie executive Gavin Smith had a relationship with the wife of a convicted drug dealer who is now a person of interest in Smith’s disappearance, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials say.

Smith, 57, has been missing since May 2012. At a press conference Thursday, Lt. Dave Dolson said Smith had a relationship with Chandrika Creech, the wife of John Creech, who is serving eight years in Los Angeles County’s Men’s Central Jail.

Smith and Chandrika Creech apparently met in rehab. Sheriff’s officials would not comment on the nature of their relationship and said only that Creech’s husband is a person of interest in Smith’s disappearance. John Creech has not spoken with detectives.

Authorities now believe Smith was murdered. Investigators found Smith’s Mercedes-Benz last month in a Simi Valley storage facility. Officials said evidence found inside the car, along with witness statements, lead them to believe Smith is dead.

No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing, a department official said Friday.

Chandrika Creech has spoken to investigations on many occasions, Dolson said. He declined to say what information she provided.

In the months after Smith was last seen, officials insisted the case remained a missing-person investigation, even as Creech’s home and vehicle were searched.

Smith, a former UCLA basketball player who worked in Fox's movie distribution department, left a friend's home in Ventura County's Oak Park neighborhood the night of May 1. Wearing purple athletic pants belonging to one of his sons, Smith drove away in his Mercedes, leaving behind his cellphone charger, shaving kit and other items.

Missing Santa Barbara TV anchor Paula Lopez found safe

A Santa Barbara TV news anchor who had been reported missing was found and was safe with her family at home, her station reported Wednesday evening.

Paula Lopez, 48, of KEYT-TV Channel 3 had "gone missing" Wednesday morning, the news station said in a statement.

It was unclear Wednesday evening where Lopez had gone or how she came to be found. The news station told The Times that the situation was a "personal matter."

Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office deputies launched a search for the news anchor, scouring a large grassy area near her home and patrolling adjacent streets.  

Lopez, who spent six years at KCAL-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles, co-anchors the Santa Barbara station's 11 p.m. broadcast.

Lopez has spent the better part of two decades at KEYT. She first joined the Santa Barbara station as an

intern in 1985, according to her biography on KEYT's website. She worked for at KCAL in Los Angeles, but returned to KEYT in 1996 to spend more time with her family.

Lopez is married to Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa, her biography says. They have three children.

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Missing TV anchor Paula Lopez last seen at home, authorities say

This post has been corrected. See note below for details.

Santa Barbara authorities confirmed that they are searching for a longtime television anchor who was last seen at her home Wednesday morning.

Paula Lopez, 48, an anchor for KEYT-TV Channel 3, spoke to her family about 9:30 a.m. and "has not been seen or heard from since," according to Santa Barbara sheriff's officials. No foul play was immediately suspected, authorities said, "but her family is concerned about her welfare."

Deputies have searched the area around Lopez's home near Cathedral Oaks and North San Marcos roads. Search and rescue personnel were combing the area using dogs and a helicopter.

Lopez is 5-foot-2 and was last seen wearing a black sweat suit and tennis shoes. Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call detectives at (805) 681-150.

KEYT-TV Channel 3 said in a statement that it had learned Wednesday morning that Paula Lopez had "gone missing."

"We have been in touch with her family and know they, as well as local authorities, are doing everything possible to find her safe and sound," KEYT General Manager Mark Danielson said. "Our thoughts and prayers are extended to Paula as well as her family and those searching to find her.... We hope for her safe and speedy return."

Lopez has spent the better part of two decades at KEYT, first joining the Santa Barbara station as an intern in 1985, according to her biography on KEYT's website. She spent six years at KCAL-TV Channel 9 in Los Angeles, but returned to KEYT in 1996 to spend more time with her family.

Lopez is married to Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa, her biography says. They have three children.

[For the record, 6:41 p.m.: A previous version of this post transposed the station's call letters as KYET.]

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Photo: Paula Lopez Credit: KEYT-TV

Hiker rescued from forest after 26 hours in the cold

An Arcadia man who was separated from friends while hiking in the Angeles National Forest was located Sunday night and taken to a hospital after surviving 26 hours in frigid temperatures, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said.

Danny Kim, 28, was discovered by search-and-rescue personnel about 8 p.m. Sunday. He was described as wet, injured and “extremely hypothermic.” Kim was airlifted by the Los Angeles County Fire Department to a hospital, where he is in stable condition,  Deputy Matt Bodell said.

Kim and two friends went hiking in the West Fork area of the forest and attempted to go north on a trail in the late afternoon Saturday, Bodell said. Kim got separated from the group about 6 p.m. and endured below-freezing temperatures overnight as searchers tried to locate him.

Family members described Kim as physically fit and “determined,” Bodell said, adding that the average person could not have endured the cold. Kim had only a light jacket and no flashlight, Bodell said, but search-and-rescue personnel found him walking.

“If he had sat down, that would have been a problem,” Bodell said.  

Bodell said Kim appeared to have sustained a small injury to the back of his head. He was being treated for that injury and his hypothermia Sunday night, Bodell said.

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Car registered to missing woman, body found in forest ravine

A car registered to a missing Santa Clarita woman was found in a ravine in Angeles National Forest, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.

A body was found nearby, said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore, but has not been identified.

The plates of the silver sedan found off Sand Canyon Road match those of the vehicle registered to Sarah Alarid, 19, who has been missing since getting into an argument with an ex-boyfriend at a New Year's Eve party, Whitmore said.

She had left the party about 3 a.m., telling friends she was headed home.

Alarid's family were also at the scene. The family wasn't contacted by authorities, but went to the site after hearing reports of a shallow grave, Whitmore said.

Authorities are also in the area investigating a possible shallow grave, but do not believe the two incidents are connected, Whitmore said.

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Search suspended for SoCal hiker missing in Kings Canyon

The search for a missing hiker from Pacific Palisades has ended -- with no clues where he might be or what might have happened.

Larry Conn, an experienced 53-year-old hiker, began his four-day hike at Taboose Pass in Kings Canyon National Park on Oct. 19. The search began Oct. 24 when he did not return to his car.

Fifty-six rescuers, three dog teams and five helicopters searched for eight days for Conn. The rugged area of Kings Canyon National Park where he was last seen is mountainous and remote, covered with a foot of snow from an Oct. 20 storm.

During the search, two rescuers were evacuated by helicopter because of medical problems from exposure.

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Photo: Larry Conn. Credit: National Park Service / Associated Press

DNA provides identification of victim in 1995 slaying

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives on Thursday announced that they have used DNA evidence to match a previously unknown 20-year-old woman whose body was found in 1995 to a missing person from Morro Bay.

Officials are now seeking information about the 17-year-old unsolved murder.

The body of Gail Catherine Allen, known for years as Jane Doe No. 59, was found Oct. 28, 1995, in the 21000 block of Covina Hills Road in an unincorporated area of Covina, according to a statement from the Sheriff’s Department.

Her burned body was found nude in a sleeping bag that had been set ablaze and thrown from an embankment. She was burned beyond recognition, officials said.

Days before the body was found, a friend of Allen's reported her missing, according to the statement.

Early this year, Morro Bay detectives received DNA samples from Allen’s father, Marcus Allen of Victorville, and her mother, Deborah Forester of Colorado. After the samples were linked to Jane Doe No. 59, the case was reopened as a murder case.

Allen was believed to have worked at a Taco Bell restaurant at 1700 Main Street in Morro Bay. Detectives are looking to speak with people who worked with her, officials said.

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Authorities search for missing 4-year-old boy near Santa Paula

Ventura County sheriff's deputies are searching a rural area north of Santa Paula on Monday for a missing 4-year-old boy, who they fear may be wandering alone in scorching temperatures.

The child was reported missing around 10 a.m. from his residence on Highway 150 on the outskirts of the city.

The search was unfolding from the ground and air -- with deputies and dogs -- near hills and agricultural fields off Ojai Road.

Authorities are concerned because temperatures are expected to be near triple digits Monday afternoon.

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Jury deliberations continue in chef’s murder trial

The jury deciding the fate of David Viens, the chef who told authorities he cooked his wife's dead body to dispose of it, failed to reach a verdict Wednesday and will continue deliberations Thursday morning.

The panel has spent about 4 1/2 hours over two days weighing whether Viens is guilty of first-degree murder. Jurors, who could convict him of second-degree murder or manslaughter instead, asked Wednesday for the definition of second-degree murder. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rand S. Rubin referred them to the jury instructions.

Viens, 49, is accused of killing his wife, Dawn, who vanished in October 2009. Her body has never been found. In 2011, after Viens learned that investigators suspected that he killed her, he leaped off an 80-foot seaside cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes.

While hospitalized, he gave two interviews to investigators that were played for the jury. In the second, he described a grisly body disposal process that the defense said was too fantastic to believe: That he packed her body into a large drum, boiled it in water over four days and dumped much of what remained into the grease trap of his Lomita restaurant, Thyme Contemporary Cafe.

During the trial, defense attorney Fred McCurry didn't challenge the premise that Dawn Viens was dead, nor did he suggest that she was slain by someone other than her husband. But he said the evidence didn't support a first-degree murder conviction, which requires proof of premeditation.

McCurry described her death as an accident, which mirrors the account David Viens allegedly gave to his daughter and ex-girlfriend. Viens told investigators he duct-taped his wife's mouth, bound her hands and feet and fell asleep, according to a tape of the interview. When he woke up, he said, she was dead. Instead of boiling her body, his attorney said, Viens threw it in the dumpster at his restaurant.

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