Despite Tips, No Leads Yet in Death of Cypress Girl

LAKEWOOD —  Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators said Wednesday that they are checking dozens of tips on the death of a 16-year-old Cypress girl whose body was found near a flood control channel.

About 60 people have called the Sheriff’s Department offering information on the death of Zuleima Valdez, a freshman at Cypress High School, but so far no substantive leads have been developed, said Sheriff’s Homicide Sgt. Rene LaPorte.

“Right now, I’d say we’re no closer to solving (the death) than when we started,” LaPorte said.

Zuleima’s fully clothed body was discovered Monday afternoon near the Coyote Creek flood control channel in Lakewood, not far from her family’s mobile home across the county line in Cypress. She was partially concealed beneath a pile of pine needles, leading investigators to suspect that someone tried to hide her body.

An autopsy was scheduled for today to determine the cause of death.

Zuleima was last seen about 9 p.m. Sunday when she told her mother that she was going to the beach with friends.

But friends told investigators they had left for the beach two or three hours earlier, LaPorte said.

“She could have just said that to get out of the house,” he said.

Some of Zuleima’s friends said Wednesday that she liked to walk the paths along the flood control channel, even at night.

However, Marcy Horgan, 26, one of Zuleima’s neighbors and a close friend, said she was certain Zuleima wouldn’t have tried to walk or ride a bike to the beach alone.

“She always called me if she needed a ride,” Horgan said. “If she had gotten to the beach, she wouldn’t be in that riverbed.”

LaPorte said Zuleima sometimes visited the site where a friend had hanged himself from a bridge that crosses the flood control channel about six weeks ago. However, LaPorte said he doubted there was a connection between the two deaths.

“Sometimes she would go out there and think about it,” Horgan said. “But usually it only happened when she was depressed. She wasn’t depressed on Sunday at all. I saw her at 8:30 (p.m.) and she was happy.”

Meanwhile, about 100 students attended a memorial service at Cypress High School. Speakers described Zuleima as a loving person who made friends easily.

At the Lincoln Center Mobile Home Park, where Zuleima lived with her 56-year-old mother, Bertha Velasquez, Horgan held her own memorial for Zuleima. She tied a purple ribbon to her mailbox, in memory of Zuleima’s favorite color.

Mobile home park residents have raised $500 to cover the costs of Zuleima’s funeral, Horgan said. Services are pending.

Sheriff’s investigators ask that anyone who might have any information in connection with the case to call the Cypress Police Department at (714) 229-6600 or the Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide division at (213) 974-4341.