Lincoln Heights Killings Stirring Fear In The Community
LINCOLN HEIGHTS (CBS) — Two unsolved murders of women from Lincoln Heights has fueled a firestorm of fears through the community, sparking talk among resident of a potential serial killer.
"You know, you wouldn't expect those types of things around here, because there is a whole bunch of cops here," one woman said.
"Someone needs to speak up in this community or else it's going to continue happening," said Richard Mangaser, who was friends with 17-year-old Michelle Lozano.
Lozano disappeared last April and her body was later found dumped off the 5 Freeway in Boyle Heights.
Mangaser also helped organize the candlelight vigil that took place Sunday night for Bree'Anna Guzman.
Her body turned up last week off the 2 Glendale Freeway after she was reported missing more than a month before.
Mangaser said a lot of the stories that he had been hearing about in the community were actually just rumors and that was only making people more fearful.
"It's not right because attention is being focused on this white van and this sketch that is going around and it's not being focused on these two cases. That's the most important thing right now," Mangaser said.
In the community there had been word of a white van with two to three men inside trying to abduct women.
But investigators said the rumors of a suspect sketch were not true.
Even Monday we heard a story of another missing woman from Highland Park, but it turned out that someone had seen her earlier in the day.
"Everybody's talking about it, I mean it's just on everybody's mind. It's a hot-button issue," a man said.
We checked with police, and while they were looking into all leads, there still had not been any major breaks in either case.
That break may come when the coroner wraps up his investigation on Guzman's body. Then investigators can dig deep and try to find similarities in both Bree'Anna Guzman's and Michele Lozano's case.
