ESCONDIDO – Yovani Perez said his mother had no enemies.
Yet the 14-year-old Escondido boy finds himself now trying to raise money for her funeral, after police notified the family that the body of Martha Lopez Perez, 43, was found Feb. 8 in a remote area of Jesmond Dene Park.
Perez had been reported missing Dec. 13, after store cameras recorded her inside the AMVETS Thrift Store at 2085 E. Valley Parkway. A mountain biker found her body in the park several miles north, police said.
The county's Medical Examiner's Office has not yet determined a cause of death but police said they are investigating Perez's death as suspicious.
“At this point we can't rule anything out,” Escondido police Lt. Bob Benton said.
Perez was wearing the same clothes she had on the day she disappeared, Benton said, so police believe she may have died about the same time she went missing.
“It leads us to believe she died somewhere right around that day if not the next day,” he said.
Perez was living with her longtime boyfriend, Anselmo Hernandez, 32, and her two children, Yovani and Yadira Perez, 10. Yovani is a ninth-grader at Orange Glen High School; his sister is a fifth-grader at Rose Elementary school.
Yovani said the family is trying to raise money to send his mother to Chiapas, Mexico, to be buried. Perez's mother still lives there, Yovani said, and they have have put collection jars at neighborhood stores.
“She got along with everybody,” Yovani said. “Everybody she met, she was kind to them. She never wanted to get in fights with them. None of that.”
Perez has an adult daughter living in Georgia and an adult son and daughter who live in Los Angeles, Yovani said.
On Dec. 13, Hernandez had dropped off Perez at the AMVETS store at 10:30 a.m. She was seen making her purchases about 2:50 p.m. and then leaving the store. Her family called police when she didn't return home.
Perez made a living buying items at thrift stores and reselling them at swap meets.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Escondido police Detectives John O'Donnell at (760) 839-4756 or Miguel Ramirez at (760) 839-4925. Anonymous information can be left at (760) 743-TIPS.
Liz Neely: (619) 593-4961; liz.neely@uniontrib.com
