Father killed 3-year-old girl found dead at recycling facility, California police say

A missing 3-year-old girl whose body was found at a recycling facility was killed by her father, California police reported.

Ellie Obi Lorenzo, 3, was reported missing Friday, July 12, by her mother after her father’s body was found in San Francisco, San Jose police said in a July 16 news release.

A San Jose recycling facility employee found Ellie’s body the next day, police said.

Investigators have now determined that Ellie was killed by her father, 42-year-old Jared Lorenzo, police said.

She died of head trauma from blunt force injuries, the Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office told KRON and The Mercury News.

Investigators learned that Lorenzo left his Fremont apartment at 6 a.m. Friday and drove to San Jose, where he took Ellie’s body out of his trunk and dumped it in a trash receptacle, police said.

Lorenzo then drove to San Francisco, where he died by suicide, police told KRON.

A garbage truck later emptied the receptacle and took the contents to the recycling facility, where Ellie’s body was found, police said.

“On Thursday morning, I kissed my daughter goodbye,” mom Chrystal Obi told KTVU in a statement. “I said I love you as she left for court-ordered visitation with her father. But my daughter never returned.”

Obi said she had recently received permission from the courts to move out of state with Ellie, which Lorenzo also knew, the Los Angeles Times reported.

San Jose is about a 55-mile drive southeast from San Francisco.

This story was originally published July 17, 2024 at 9:34 AM with the headline "Father killed 3-year-old girl found dead at recycling facility, California police say."