CHP Names New Suspect in Fatal Hit-Run

California Highway Patrol investigators on Tuesday named a new suspect in a weekend hit-and-run crash that killed two girls on the Foothill Freeway in Duarte.

The suspect, Arnoldo Moreno, 27, of Los Angeles allegedly fled to an acquaintance’s home in the area after Saturday’s crash and told people there that he had been in an accident, a CHP spokesman said.

Elena Ferrer, 12, and Shannon White, 10, burned to death in the crash, and Elena’s father, Antonio Ferrer, 50, was critically injured.

The crash occurred east of the Mountain Avenue exit, while the girls were napping in the back seat of Ferrer’s stalled car. The car was struck from behind by a Ford LTD that authorities now believe was driven by Moreno, CHP spokesman Trany Morton said.

Moreno is being sought for investigation of second-degree murder and felony hit and run.

Moreno had apparently borrowed the car from Natividad Chavez, whose state identification card was found in the wreckage, authorities said. Detectives had earlier named Chavez, 24, as a suspect, but based on information from friends of the two men and witnesses to the crash, Moreno has now been identified as the driver, Morton said.

The acquaintances at the Monrovia home told investigators that Moreno, who is 6 feet 1, weighs 160 pounds and has a dark mustache, had a deep cut on the left side of his nose. After washing blood from his face and hands, “he left the home on foot and didn’t say where he was headed,” Morton said.