Cops: Body identified as missing Calif. woman Erica Alonso
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. - A body found in a southern California creek bed Monday has been identified as missing Laguna Hills woman Erica Alonso, who vanished in February after going on a Valentine's Day date.
Fingerprints were used to make a positive identification following an autopsy, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
There were no obvious signs of trauma,and officials weren't able to determine a cause of death.
The body was discovered by a group of biologists Monday night near San Juan Capistrano, Calif. in a gully beneath a highway, Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Jeff Hallock told 48 Hours' Crimesider.
The remote location is about 30 miles from where Alonso was last seen at her on-again, off-again boyfriend's home in Irvine in the early morning hours of Feb. 15. The boyfriend told police Alonso and he got in a fight after they returned home from a club, and that she stormed off, according to CBS Los Angeles.
Alonso's boyfriend has been questioned by investigators, and he's cooperated with police, Lt. Hallock told Crimesider April 22.
"We believe he's the last person who saw her, so obviously that causes us to to focus some attention on him," Hallock said.
The boyfriend isn't a suspect and the information he's provided has checked out, Hallock said at the time.
