Orange County Vector Control workers discovered a man clinging to life before 3 p.m. Tuesday in the riverbed below the Edinger Street overpass in Santa Ana.
Jesus Lopez Jr. told the workers he did not jump off the overpass. Then the Los Angeles 34-year-old died. An autopsy, further investigation and interviews with family indicate Lopez was murdered, according to Santa Ana Police. There are no suspects.
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The autopsy revealed Lopez died of blunt-force trauma to his body not caused by a fall or jump from the overpass.
Family members told homicide detectives that 6-foot-7, 250-pound Lopez has the mental capacity of a 13-year-old. He often traveled alone by train from his home in LA to another in Mexico, which is where he was last seen boarding a riding car for the return trip Saturday, cops were told.
They added there would be no reason for Lopez to get off at the Santa Ana stop, as he has no family here. His family in LA claims undisclosed items Lopez had with him are missing.
That's about it as far as clues investigators have to go off of, so anyone with information is asked to call the Santa Ana Police homicide unit at 714.245.8390.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.