LA man may have killed wife, kidnapped 5-year-old daughter, police say

Los Angeles police are searching for a 5-year-old girl and her father after the girl’s mother was found dead inside their West Adams home Monday.

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Officers responded to a welfare check on the 2600 block of South Alsace Avenue at 12:39 p.m. Monday and discovered an adult woman deceased inside the residence, according to an LAPD news release. The woman’s identity and manner of death have not been publicly released.

Investigators identified the victim’s husband, Ruben Fregoso, 40, as a person of interest in her death. Fregoso had made statements indicating he intended to flee the country, police said. The California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert on Monday night listing Fregoso and the couple’s 5-year-old daughter, Daleyza. 

The pair were last seen around 4 a.m. Sunday, according to the alert. They were believed to be traveling in a white 2019 Land Rover Discovery with California license plate 9DAW716. The vehicle was later found abandoned in a parking structure in San Ysidro, near the U.S.-Mexico border. Surveillance camera footage from the structure showed a man appearing to be Fregoso walking with a child, CBS News reported.

Neighbors have already begun leaving flowers and candles outside the Alsace Avenue home. “I feel my heart was broken,” Rodrigo Lopez, who works in West Adams, told KNBC-TV. “She was a nice lady, friendly all the time when they passed by and say, ‘Hi, how are you? ’ Every day, every day. Monday through Friday, I worked right there and she came.”

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Daleyza is described as approximately 3 feet tall and 45 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Ruben Fregoso is around 5-foot-9, weighs approximately 200 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

LAPD told SFGATE that there are no new updates in the investigation as of Wednesday morning. Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD’s robbery-homicide division at 323-786-5100.