A vigil was held for Andrea Vazquez, who went missing after a shooting at a park in California. Gabriel Esparza was arrested in the case, and her body was found on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023. (Screenshot from LA’s Fox11; Vazquez and suspect photo from Whitter Police Department)
A suspect has been arrested in the disappearance of a teen who was shot at a parking lot of a park in California and whose body was found 50 miles away in a field east of Los Angeles in what police believe was a random attack.
Gabriel Esparza, 20, was arrested in the shooting and kidnapping of 19-year-old Andrea Vazquez, the Whittier Police Department said in an Instagram post. Esparza was arrested at his workplace in the city of Lakewood, police said, without saying what he did for a living. Esparza was booked at the Whittier Police Department jail on charges of murder and kidnapping. He is being held with no bail. A weapon believed to have been used in the crime was recovered, as was his 2013 White Toyota Tacoma truck.
The victim’s body was found on Monday before midnight after searchers combed large open areas of Moreno Valley, authorities said.
Police believe Vazquez and her boyfriend were randomly targeted by the suspect at Penn Park.
Police expect to present their case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office on Wednesday.
The family told local FOX 11 they are heartbroken.
The victim’s boyfriend told police that she disappeared after a gunman fired in their direction as the couple was in his car in the park’s parking lot.
Andrea Vazquez went missing shortly after midnight on Sunday from the parking area of Penn Park at 13950 Penn Street in Whittier, southeast of Los Angeles, police said in a news release.
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Vazquez’s sister Edlyn Vazquez said she tracked her cellphone Sunday morning to a field off a freeway in Moreno Valley, about 50 miles from the park, where she found more blood but no phone nor her sister. She said police searched the area but provided no updates on the case on Tuesday morning.
The unidentified boyfriend told police about the mysterious and terrifying ordeal.
“An adult male witness reported that while at the park with an adult female companion, an armed suspect approached their vehicle and fired a weapon in their direction,” police said. “The male witness ran from the location and upon his return, discovered blood near his vehicle and his female companion was missing.”
Vazquez’s sister said it all went down quickly as the boyfriend turned his back to ask for help.
“In that moment, my sister was kidnapped,” Edlyn Vazquez told Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC-TV.
Before news of the death broke, Vazquez’s mother said she was in pain.
“It’s a pain nobody deserves,” she told CBS Los Angeles. “She was my everything.”
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