Simone WilsonThe dead body that police pulled from bushes alongside the Glendale Freeway yesterday morning has been identified by femily members as 22-year-old Bree'Anna Guzman.
The L.A. County Coroner's Office told the Weekly last night that the body could not yet be identified, and was still being called a “Jane Doe.” However, Guzman's mom, who visited the crime scene, tells NBC4 that the body belonged to her daughter.
Guzman, a young mother of two, went missing exactly one month ago. She left her Lincoln Heights home to go fetch some cough syrup at the corner store…
… and never came back.
Family, friends and neighbors have been collaging the neighborhood with “Have you seen me?” flyers ever since. Eerily, a candlelight vigil was planned for yesterday evening, to mark the one-month anniversary of Guzman's disappearance.
Darlene Guxman Doran (the missing woman's mother) posted this notice to the “Praying for Bree'anna Guzman” Facebook page yesterday morning, right about the time the body was being discovered:
“… today marks one month since Bree'Anna's mysterious disappearance. Please join together tonight between 6 and 6:30 PM at her home 2300 blk of Humboldt 90031, as we gather for a candle light prayer vigil. We will not be walking, just special moments in thought and prayer. We all have the faith that she is out there, let's lift her name up to Christ our Lord for his mercy upon us to bring her home. Xo xo.”
But as soon as reports started flooding in that a body had been pulled from the bushes in Silver Lake, investigators hinted that they were dipping into their missing-persons pool to ID the victim, who appeared to be a young woman in her 20s.
The crime scene was an awful one. The half-clothed body had apparently been tossed from a vehicle like a rag doll. Schoolchildren and parents at Allesandro Elementary School, only 100 feet away, watched the investigation in fear that danger could still be imminent.
“Whoever did this could still be around our children's school,” Silver Lake resident Vanessa Rodriguez told ABC7. “It's very scary to know that something like this happened around here.”
“Bree'Anna Guzman Ruiz, her baby girl 15 months and Mom.”; Credit: Facebook
The many community members who were helping search for Guzman are shocked — and angered that the media didn't do more until it was too late.
From the Canyon News article announcing her vigil:
Money also has become a concern for Duran and her family. Guzman was the main provider for the family working at Flox Shop in Glendale before she disappeared. Duran, whose background is in accounting, bookkeeping and administrative work, is currently seeking employment to help provide for the family including her daughter's two young girls. … Guzman, who is a 2007 graduate of Thomas Riley High School in L.A. and recently attended a culinary school in Pasadena, is described as a female Hispanic with black hair, brown eyes and braces. She stands 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs about 110 pounds, and was last seen wearing a blue jacket, pink shirt and blue jeans. She also has a tattoo on the back of her neck and a pierced lower lip.
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