Nancy Molina, 33

Nancy Molina, a 33-year-old Latina, died Monday, July 4, after she was beaten and strangled in the 5200 block of Brookdale Road in South Gate, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records. 

South Gate police were called about 4:20 a.m., after Molina’s boyfriend, Oscar Rodriguez Jr., called 911 and said his girlfriend was having difficulty breathing, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. John Corina. 

Officers discovered that Molina had multiple traumatic injuries, Corina said. Paramedics performed CPR on Molina and then took her to a nearby hospital.

Rodriguez allegedly told investigators that the couple had been drinking and that Molina had fallen, Corina said. However, doctors at the hospital told investigators that her injuries seemed too severe for a fall.

Molina was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:15 p.m., according to coroner’s records. The cause of death was listed as multiple blunt force injuries and strangulation. 

Rodriguez, a 40-year-old Latino, was arrested on suspicion of murder and booked into jail in lieu of $2 million bail. He was charged with one count of murder on July 6, and pleaded not guilty when he was arraigned the following day, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. 

He is next scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 3 in Department J of the Los Angeles County Superior Court's Norwalk Courthouse.

Molina lived in another part of South Gate, according to coroner’s records, and had been seeing Rodriguez for “just a matter of months,” Corina said. The couple had gone out earlier that evening, he said, and went back to Rodriguez’s residence. 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.  

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @latimeshomicide on Twitter.