BELLFLOWER, Calif.—The father of a baby girl found dead outside a Los Angeles-area mortuary is a person of interest in her death, authorities said.
Officials are seeking Alexander Echeverria of South Sacramento after his daughter’s body was found late Monday morning outside the Funeraria del Angel Bellflower Mortuary in suburban Bellflower.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department believes 8-month-old Alexia Rose Echeverria died in Sacramento. TV footage showed a memorial of flowers, balloons, candles and stuffed animals outside the Southern California mortuary for the baby, whose body was discovered in a car seat outside a trash container and partially covered by a blanket.
“We just want justice,” that’s the message Karla Alvarado has after learning her baby girl, Alexia Rose Echeverria, was found dead beside a dumpster in Bellflower. Investigators are searching for the 8-month-old’s father, Alexander Echeverria. He’s a “person of interest” @FOX40 pic.twitter.com/BVx841MUNz
— Jessica Mensch (@Jessmensch) May 28, 2019
The girl’s mother, Karla Alvarado, told KOVR-TV that Echeverria had said he was going to pick up his brother in San Francisco. He later called Alvarado crying but didn’t say anything else.
Alvarado, who lives with Echeverria, said she demanded he come home with their daughter or she would call police.
“She had just had just learned how to say, ‘Mama.’ She was already calling me mama. She was clapping for everything,” Alvarado said.
Authorities didn’t immediately release details about the girl’s death or why an Amber Alert was not issued. Sarah Ardalani, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said law enforcement had put a “security hold” on the case that prohibited her from releasing further information.
Echeverria was last seen in Southern California early Monday morning, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement on Tuesday. Officials believe he suffers from depression and had made suicidal statements to his family, who reported him missing on Memorial Day.
Echeverria has been driving a gray 2014 Volkswagen Jetta with the California license plate 7FFT866.
The father is 22 years old.
#LASD Seeking the Public’s Help in Locating “At Risk” #Missing Person Alexander Echeverria, 30y/o, 5’6”, 160lbs, From Northern California, Last seen May 24, 2019. Call w/ ANONYMOUS TIPS 800-222-8477 @LACrimeStopper1 or Detectives at 323-890-5500 pic.twitter.com/ArJZ74IwX5
— LA County Sheriff’s (@LASDHQ) May 28, 2019
He was last seen alone Sunday around 10:30 p.m., according to an alert issued Tuesday evening by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, which is handling the case, and a spokesperson for the mortuary did not immediately return requests for additional comment.
Facts About Crime in the US
Violent crime in the United States has fallen sharply over the past 25 years, according to both the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).
The rate of violent crimes fell by 49 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the FBI’s UCR, which only reflects crimes reported to the police.
The violent crime rate dropped by 74 percent between 1993 and 2017, according to the BJS’s NCVS, which takes into account both crimes that have been reported to the police and those that have not.
“From 1993 to 2017, the rate of violent victimization declined 74 percent, from 79.8 to 20.6 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older,” the U.S. Department of Justice stated.
Both studies are based on data up to and including 2017, the most recent year for which complete figures are available.
The FBI recently released preliminary data for 2018. According to the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January to June 2018, violent crime rates in the United States dropped by 4.3 percent compared to the same six-month period in 2017.
NTD News staff contributed to this report.
