Posted on 02/10/2009 5:37:47 PM PST by nickcarraway
A local cold case is solved.
After more than four years, police in Santa Maria say they know who killed Jeremy Grinder.
Grinder's family reported him missing from Santa Maria in September of 2004. On January 11, 2005, police found Grinder's remains the unincorporated part of the county. Now, three people are charged with murder and criminal street gang terrorism.
Police revealed the victim and the three suspects were all a part of the same local street gang. With these arrests, Grinder's family says they finally have a little bit of closure.
Grinder was only 21 years old when police say he disappeared. Detectives now know Grinder was robbed and kidnapped in the Evans Park Housing Project in September of 2004. Police say the murderers then drove him more than 60 miles to the Alisos Canyon area near Cuyama. That is where they shot him in the head and left him to die.
"I just couldn't believe it at first, and then it set in, and we were just hoping they would catch somebody," said Jeremy Grinder's brother, Christopher Witczak.
The hardest part for Witczak is not having his little brother around.
"It was good to have a brother. He always listened to my mom and always just was good," Witczak said.
Police arrested 28-year-old Jeremy Wallin, already in custody on unrelated charges, 23-year-old Isaac Berumen, and 31-year-old Elizabeth Bagood.
"Anytime you can solve a murder case it's a good thing. Anytime you can solve a gang-related murder case, it's a great thing, because they're very difficult to investigate," said Lieutenant Dan Ast from the Santa Maria Police Department.
Police had their eye on Wallin for years, but gang-related cases are tougher because people are more reluctant to speak out.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Want to at least give us a hint of where this is? Santa Maria? That’s a boat — right?
It’d near Santa Barbara, California.
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