A missing California woman was found dead in a national forest, and her husband has reportedly fled to South America with their children.
Sheylla Cabrera, 33, a mother of three, was last seen alive on August 9 and was reported missing by friends three days later, KTLA reports. A day after the report, investigators found surveillance video that showed her husband, 36-year-old Jossimar Cabrera, dragging a large item wrapped in fabric away from their apartment. And a neighbor saw him cleaning the trunk of the family car at 2:30 a.m.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department named him a person of interest in their investigation after Sheylla Cabrera’s body was found over the weekend in the Angeles National Forest.
A tip led them to the body on August 16, and homicide Detective Michael Modica said that the body was found “consistent” with the video showing the husband dragging something out of the apartment..
“That video is consistent with how and what we found [the victim’s] remains in,” Modica told KTLA.
Friends said Sheylla Cabrera suffered years of domestic violence but feared leaving because of her husband’s threats regarding their three children. They said she was, however, preparing to leave when she disappeared.
“She was just too scared because he would always threaten to leave with the kids, so I think that was her fear,” Elizabeth Rousseau, a friend, said. “If she did anything, he was going to kidnap the kids.”
Jossimar Cabrera initially fled to Mexico, KABC said, and then flew to Lima on Saturday.
Sheylla Cabrera’s family — including her mother in Peru — are calling on US authorities to step up and get the husband into custody. The family says that he gave them multiple stories about her whereabouts after the disappearance, first saying federal immigration authorities had taken her, then saying she left with another man. In a third story, he told the family she’d been in an accident.
KTLA said that he was briefly taken into custody in Peru, and the children placed in protective custody. He was released, however, because there have been no formal charges filed against him. It’s not clear if the children were returned to him.
Investigators told KTTV that they planned to present evidence to the district attorney on Thursday and urge murder charges be filed against Jossimar Cabrera. They say they know where he is in Peru.
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[Featured image: KABC screenshot]
