A 22-year-old man was charged Thursday with murdering his 64-year-old female roommate, whose body was found in a trash bin near the El Monte mobile home park where they lived.
David Stanley Lemus-Orellana was set to be arraigned Thursday in a Pomona courtroom, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Florinda Velasquez-Hernandez’s body was discovered about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 3300 block of Maxson Road by El Monte police officers who had been sent there on a “suspicious circumstances” call from a person who reported that a man was seen dragging a female body toward the trash container, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Juanita Navarro-Suarez.
“The suspect and victim were roommates,” sheriff’s Deputy Trina Schrader said in a statement. “The motive for this incident is unknown at this time.”
Security video showed a man pushing a plastic bin toward the trash bin, then returning minutes later without the plastic bin.
Family members told CBS2 that the victim rented a room in a mobile home where at least two men also lived. Her family said she had immigrated into the U.S. from El Salvador three years ago.
Lemus-Orellana was arrested shortly after 2 p.m. that day by El Monte police and has remained behind bars since then, jail records show.
Information was not immediately available on the cause of the woman’s death, and an autopsy is still pending.
Sheriff’s detectives, who were assisting El Monte police in the investigation, asked anyone with information about the woman’s death to contact the Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500. An anonymous report can be made by calling Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
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