Woman’s body found in shallow grave — 18 years after she vanished, CA officials say
.jpg "A woman’s body was found in a shallow grave on May 4, 2022, on the Oakland Army Base after she went missing in 2004, prosecutors said. She was last seen with her boyfriend.")
A woman’s body was discovered in a shallow grave in California after she disappeared on Thanksgiving Day 18 years ago, prosecutors said.
Cynthia “Linda” Alonzo’s body was found wrapped in tarp by workers on May 4 on the Oakland Army Base, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office said in a May 18 news release.
Alonzo was last seen getting into a car with her boyfriend, Eric Mora, on Thanksgiving in 2004, prosecutors said. The two were going to her mother’s house in San Francisco for the holiday.
Mora became investigators’ primary suspect, prosecutors said. Within three years of Alonzo’s disappearance, he was charged with second-degree murder. In 2012, Mora was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
But his initial conviction was dismissed in 2016 by a state appellate court, so he went through a retrial that year, KABC-TV reported.
He then confessed to the killing of Alonzo in 2016 and was sentenced to 11 years in prison the following year, prosecutors said. He provided investigators with a location of Alonzo’s body, but her body was never found.
Then a work crew found a body in a shallow grave.
An autopsy of the remains determined the body was Alonzo.
“After nearly 18 years of waiting, the family of Linda Alonzo may finally find some peace in knowing that their loved one can ultimately be laid to rest,” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in the release. “We cannot begin to imagine the pain and unrest that her family must have felt through all this time not knowing where Linda was. Our thoughts are with them.”
This story was originally published May 19, 2022 at 2:05 PM with the headline "Woman’s body found in shallow grave — 18 years after she vanished, CA officials say."
