Authorities renew call for information in 1998 El Cajon murder cold case

City News Service
Posted

EL CAJON, Calif. (CNS) - Twenty-eight years after a mother of three was found slain in a brushy ravine in eastern San Diego County, authorities have put out another call for information that might help close the case on her long-unsolved murder.

The remains of 30-year-old Alicia Ledezma Sanchez were discovered in an open area off the 1300 block of Avocado Avenue in El Cajon on Aug. 13, 1998. Investigators believe she had been dead for as long as six weeks.

The death of Sanchez, a Mexican national who came to the United States to find work in hopes of giving her children a better future, was classified as a homicide, though no cause-of-death ruling case has been made public.

"The El Cajon Police Department's Cold Case Homicide Unit continues to seek information regarding the ... investigation," ECPD Detective Pedro Meza said Thursday. "Although many years have passed, investigators remain committed to pursuing all available leads and bringing clarity and justice to this case. ... Advances in investigative techniques, combined with new information from the public, can help move longstanding cases forward."

The initial investigation into Sanchez's death led to no arrests, and, for more than two decades, attempts to identify the victim were fruitless.

In 2003, ECPD cold-case detectives revived the investigation, sending Sanchez's skull to a forensic artist who used it to create a sculpture approximating her facial features as they were in life. Photographs of the rendering were released to the public, but no viable leads resulted.

Five years later, a DNA sample was obtained from the decedent's remains and a genetic profile was developed, but the effort led to no matches, according to police.

Then, over a two-year period beginning in 2023, members of an ECPD volunteer cold-case unit worked with several laboratories to conduct genetic genealogy and advanced DNA-analysis techniques that can reveal decedents' characteristics and potential family members.

Last summer, the El Cajon Police Department posted an update on the investigation on its social media pages in another bid to find out who the victim was. The cold-case unit was then contacted by a potential family member who believed she knew who the victim was, and a genetic test with DNA obtained from Sanchez's son confirmed a familial match, finally revealing Sanchez's identity.

For investigators seeking to solve the mystery of the murder after so much time has passed, no piece of information in any way relevant to the case "is too small" for them to consider, Meza noted.

"Investigators are particularly interested in speaking with individuals who may not have previously shared what they know. ... (Such) information could make a critical difference in helping investigators determine what happened and provide long-awaited answers in this case," he said.

Anyone with knowledge about Sanchez or the circumstances surrounding her death is asked to contact El Cajon police at 619-579-3320 or coldhomicideunit@elcajon.gov.