Times coverage: Warrant issued in 1983 cold case

June 15, 2010, 2:43 p.m.

Investigators have made significant developments on a cold case that has eluded authorities since 1983.

Last week, the LAPD issued an arrest warrant for Luis Garcia Villalvazo, a Mexican citizen, who allegedly kidnapped Victoria Denise Brown, an 8-year-old girl, while she was walking home from Graham Street Elementary School in Watts.

Although there was an extensive search for Victoria, the girl's body was found a day later in the lidless trunk of an abandoned car. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

Through DNA technology, detectives were able to link Garcia with the genetic material collected at the crime scene.

Garcia is currently serving time in prison for the death of Airis Estrella Pando, a 7-year-old girl, who died in 2005. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting three other young girls in Juarez, Mexico, in 2004.

Times reporter Andrew Blankstein has more in L.A. Now: Charges filed in 1983 sexual assault, slaying of 8-year-old girl

10 reader comments

There was undoubtedly an official cover-up of the true facts of the 1947 Elizabeth Short murder in Los Angeles. It continues to this very day. The true source of the sixty-three year old conspiracy lies deep within the organizational sub-conscious of the Los Angeles Police Department; openly aided and abetted by the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

There is only shameful malfeasance in the silence and inertia of the L.A.P.D. in the Black Dahlia case and ongoing dereliction of duty in their failure to remain fully informed upon an open and unsolved murder investigation, and following down any solid leads they might have however new found. This is both the peoples legitimate business and the department's sworn duty. Instead, they choose to ignore the work of outsiders who only wish to only assist them gratis and see justice and closure in the brutal killing.

There is conspiracy, corruption, and deep irony as well in an instrument of the cherished First Amendment right to a free and unfettered press, such as the Times, knowingly lying and misinforming the public on such an important part of their city's history. Hiding the true story away from prying eyes as if the bloody newspaper owned it, like some awful fast food franchise, makes a mockery of the peoples right to know how their city is using their taxes.

But hey, I don't live there so I should mind my own business? Probably. But, if I did live there, I'd be asking what else they were hiding. Besides, I already figured out who killed the Black Dahlia and why he did it. I even have a fairly good idea why they covered the whole affair over in the first place. If not why they continue to do so. But then I've had lot's of help .. . That's for sure.

— Matthew S. Mezger June 19, 2010 at 8:37 a.m.

The Homicide Report

Times coverage: Warrant issued in 1983 cold case

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10 reader comments