Dennis RomeroUpdated at the bottom with the search completed. First posted at 9:06 a.m. on Wednesday.
Cops think they know who killed El Camino Real High School soccer player Francisco Rodriguez:
Calabasas residents Jason Schumann, 24, and Elizabeth Ibarra, 19, have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 11 murder that shocked the San Fernando Valley.
The two appear to have a newborn baby together, and she seemed to be friends with the 17-year-old victim, at the least.
The question for cops now is:
Where's the murder weapon?
Authorities hope to find it this morning:
They're organizing a “hand-to-hand search” for the weapon at the Calabasas landfill, 5300 Los Hills Road, at 10 a.m. today.
The landfill to be searched; Credit: @johnNBCLA
The LAPD says community volunteers have been enlisted to help cops with the dirty work of sifting through smelly refuse to get to the …
… weapon believed to have been used in the murder of 17-year-old Francisco Javier Rodriguez Jr., who was gunned down in his front yard on January 11, 2012.
He was shot after returning to his Winnetka home following a big soccer game at school.
According to police and reports, a “girl” with red hair knocked on his door in the 6900 block of Cozycroft Avenue, he came out, and pop-pop-pop — Rodriguez was gone.
A neighbor said:
He must've went up to the car, they shot him, and he turned around and took steps toward his house, and he landed right on this front yard.
The girl, witnesses said, fled in a green SUV.
[Added at 12:53 p.m.]: Eric Spillman of KTLA News tweeted this morning that searchers might have to dig as far as 10 feet below the surface and that the search could take two days.
The Los Angeles Fire Department, he said, is providing “heavy equipment” to help out with the search.
[Update at 4:17 p.m.:] After a second day of searching, cops say they came up empty-handed and have ended the endeavor, according to City News Service.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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