Missy Hernandez.Photo: Fresno County Sheriff’s Office
Five days after charging Missy Hernandez’s boyfriend with her murder, and 40 days after the 30-year-old woman went missing, authorities recovered her body in the waters of the California Aqueduct, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday.
Hernandez, also known as Missy Perez and the mother of an 11-year-old daughter, had not been seen since the night of Dec. 7, when she left an art show in downtown Fresno with the alleged killer, whom police identified as her boyfriend, Ramon Jimenez.
Her body was located on Sunday.
Jimenez, 41, of Hanford, has been jailed since Dec. 8, when he was arrested on an outstanding domestic violence charge involving an alleged incident at Hernandez’s Fresno home last October, the sheriff’s office said in aseparate news release. The murder charge was added Jan. 11.
At the time the murder charge was added, authorities still had not located the victim, but due to “suspicious circumstances surrounding her disappearance and significant time passing with no sign of Hernandez, detectives presumed her to be deceased,” said the sheriff’s office.
The investigation into those circumstances began Dec. 8, the day after the alleged victim was last seen, when friends who could not reach Hernandez asked the sheriff’s office to conduct a welfare check at her home.
Ramon Jimenez.Fresno County Sheriff’s Office
A deputy found Jimenez at the home but not the woman — and recognized Jimenez as a wanted man who had eluded arrest for the previous alleged domestic violence incident, the sheriff’s office said.
He was arrested on the spot and booked into the county jail.
On Dec. 9, friends of Hernandez who entered her home found “evidence that she may be injured and in need of help,” according to the sheriff’s office. Again they contacted deputies, and the sheriff’s office said her disappearance now looked “suspicious.”
After investigators identified Jimenez as a person of interest, a judge agreed to hold Jimenez on the domestic violence arrest without bail, said the sheriff’s office.
“Over the course of the month-long investigation, detectives developed an overwhelming amount of forensic and digital evidence” leading to the additional murder charge, said the sheriff’s office.
That evidence identified “several locations … to search for Missy’s body,” said the sheriff’s office. Failed ground searches along I-5 in Kern County and the Highway 198 corridor in Fresno County led on Sunday to “a dangerous dive operation in a specific area of the California Aqueduct.”
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Hernandez “lived her life always making sure everyone around her knew they were loved and knew they could count on her,” Ayala wrote. “She loved so much and gave so much to anyone who came into her life no matter if she knew you or not. That’s the type of person she was, the loving, caring, selfless person always giving and always putting others before her own needs.”
Despite a life that “could be all kinds of chaos,” Ayala wrote, “… [h]ers was a life that shined brightly just so the paths of others could be illuminated. Hers was also a life that exemplified brilliance in every capacity. I truly believe my aunt to have been one of the most alive people on the planet. She was an inspiration to anyone that met her, whether they knew her for an hour or a lifetime. She lived her life to the fullest and made sure she never took a day for granted.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go tothehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
