Arrest Made, Body Found in Search for California Woman
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ABC News(SAN DIEGO) — Authorities searching for Brittany Killgore, a 22-year-old California woman who disappeared last Friday, arrested a woman on suspicion of murder and then located a dead body based upon leads stemming from the arrest, officials said.
The body, which has not been formally identified, was found near Lake Skinner in Riverside County, Calif., the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said.
Key to the case was an apparent suicide note at the arrest scene that detailed Killgore’s fate and the location of her body, according to ABC News affiliate KGTV in San Diego.
The suspect, Jessica Lynn Lopez, who police said was 27, was arrested at a Ramada Inn in San Diego Tuesday morning and then treated for an undisclosed medical condition at a local hospital, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said.
Authorities expected to charge her with murder after her release. They would not disclose her relationship to Killgore.
The developments came after Killgore’s estranged husband said he would return home from Afghanistan, where he is an active duty Marine, to help in the search for his wife.
Killgore, of Fallbrook, Calif., filed for a divorce from her husband, Cory Killgore, also 22, just days before she disappeared Friday evening.
Police said they believe 45-year-old Marine Louis Ray Perez may have been the last person to see Killgore alive. Perez was arrested Sunday on an unrelated charge of possession of an AR-15 assault rifle and is being held in San Diego Central Jail on $500,000 bail.
“Mr. Perez was not cooperative or what we felt was fully forthcoming in his interview,” said Lt. Larry Nesbit of the San Diego Sheriff’s Office.
“He’s being actively investigated for this murder,” Nesbit told ABC News affiliate KABC-TV in Los Angeles.
Killgore told friends she was going to spend Friday evening in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. However, authorities believe she never made it. Her cell phone was recovered in the area by San Diego trolley security.
Police declined to say whom Killgore planned to spend the evening with or the nature of her relationship with Perez.
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