Brenda Sierra, 15

Brenda Sierra, a 15-year-old Latina, was killed Friday, Oct. 18, 2002, in the 900 block of Miller Avenue in East Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s authorities.

Brenda, a sophomore at Schurr High School in Montebello, was on her way to catch a ride to school with her best friend just after 7 a.m. when she was kidnapped, according to the Los Angeles Times archives.

Her body was found the next day in the woods in Crestline in the San Bernardino Mountains. Authorities determined that she was kidnapped near Whittier Boulevard and Leonard Avenue and taken to a nearby home, where she was sexually assaulted. She then was taken to Miller Avenue, where she was bludgeoned to death, then her body was dumped.

Shortly after the killing, authorities went to the teenager’s home to appeal to the public for help. They said that Brenda had died from a blow to the head.

In January 2003, the county Board of Supervisors increased a $5,000 reward to $150,000.

A year later, mourners marked the anniversary of the girl’s death with a vigil that attracted more than 100 people.

The case went cold, but in March 2015, Rosemary Chavira, a woman who was 15 at the time of the killing, was charged with murder in Brenda’s death, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The arrest marked a significant turn in the investigation, and for the first time, authorities said that Brenda was targeted because her brother had testified as a witness in a gang shooting about 10 days before the teen vanished.

Chavira was a gang member at the time, authorities said.

Three months later, in July 2015, three additional gang members were charged in connection with the killing.

Prosecutors said that between Oct. 7 and Oct. 18, 2002, Eddie Chavira, who is now 32, was in custody over a gang shooting and told a fellow gang member that he was going to have other members of the gang “take care of witnesses.”

Chavira then contacted his sister, Rosemary Chavira, to help with the effort.

In addition, Daniel Cervantes and George Barraza each were charged with one count of murder, conspiracy to dissuade a witness and forcible rape with the special circumstance of felony murder during the commission of a kidnapping and a crime committed to further a street gang.

A fifth suspect in Brenda’s slaying was killed in an unrelated homicide in 2003.

Barraza, a fugitive, was believed to have fled to Mexico. In October 2017, authorities announced that he had been found dead.