Body Found Near Lake Skinner Identified As Marine's Missing Wife
MURRIETA (CBS) — Authorities Wednesday identified a body, which had been discovered near Lake Skinner in Southern Riverside County, as that of the missing wife of a Camp Pendleton-based Marine.
Brittany Killgore had gone missing from Fallbrook in San Diego County shortly after filing for divorce.
Close friends of Killgore's told us that the deployment of her husband, Cory, left her alone and without support.
They said that she had withdrawn from her friends at her apartment building over the past four months and that she ended up hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Kyle Traynum said that she would often ask him to go party with her.
"She didn't really bother no one, she just kept to herself," he said, adding that Killgore would often disappear for days on party trips.
Missing-person flyers were still posted around her apartment Wednesday and neighbors said that they could not believe that she was gone.
"At first I didn't believe it, but then, like I said, as days went by I was like, 'Wow, she's really gone," Traynum said.
The man believed to be one of the last people to see Killgore alive, Louis Perez, faced a judge Wednesday for weapons charges.
During the investigation into Killgore's murder, authorities said they found an unauthorized military assault rifle at the home of the 45-year-old Marine.
Perez had not been charged in the 22-year-old's death, but police said that they were still investigating him in connection with the crime.
Detectives, however, did arrest Jessica Lynn Lopez, 27, for the murder.
There were reports that detectives found a suicide note from Lopez that led them to the discovery of Killgore's body in Riverside County. But Larry Nesbit of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department would not comment on it.
"There are too many loose ends to try to make any sense of it at this point," Nesbit said.
The note may have also led police to a Ramada Inn where Lopez was arrested and treated for self-inflicted wounds.
Lopez was expected to be arraigned on murder charges on Thursday.
Killgore had filed for divorce last week, but police said that her husband was not a suspect in the case.
