Andrea Vazquez’s family held a prayer vigil at the site of her kidnapping, before her body was found on Monday night.
Whittier Police Department
A 19-year-old woman has been found dead in a field in Southern California after a seemingly random attack and kidnapping in the early hours of Sunday morning. A man has now been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Andrea Vazquez, police say.
The attack happened in the parking area of a small park in the city of Whittier shortly after midnight on Aug. 20, the Whittier Police Department said. Vazquez and an unnamed male companion were at the park shortly after midnight when an armed assailant allegedly approached their vehicle and fired a gun in their direction. Vazquez’s male companion reportedly ran from the scene. When he later returned to the vehicle, Vazquez was missing and blood was seen near the car, police said.
Andrea Vazquez and a male companion were shot at at the parking area of Penn Park in Whittier, California in the early hours of Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023.
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On Sunday morning, Whittier police posted a missing persons bulletin on Facebook as the search for Vazquez began.
It’s unclear what led detectives to Vazquez’s alleged killer, but on Monday afternoon Gabriel Esparza, 20, a Whittier resident, was arrested at his workplace in Lakewood on suspicion of her kidnapping and murder.
Late on Monday night, Vazquez’s body was found in a field 60 miles east of the killing near Alessandro Boulevard and Merwin Street in Moreno Valley. Esparza’s gun and vehicle, a 2013 white Toyota Tacoma truck, were also recovered, police say. Police described the hunt for Vazquez and her killer as a “relentless investigation.”
“This was a complete random act of violence,” Whittier police spokesperson Thomas Mattson told FOX 11. “There’s nothing to suggest there was any kind of gang affiliation or anything along those lines. The suspect just randomly picked someone who was hanging out in the park and committed this heinous act.”
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“She was just a little girl,” Vazquez’s mother Anna told the outlet. Vazquez was reportedly studying fashion design at Fullerton College and worked at a mall in Cerritos.
Esparza was booked at the Whittier Police Department jail on suspicion of murder and kidnapping. He is being held with no bail. The case will be put to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday.