PATRICIA PEREZ-GODINEZ -15 yo - Pittsboro NC

Updated: 11:44 p.m. yesterday
Police: Wake teen found dead in Jordan Lake was stabbed

PITTSBORO, N.C. — A 15-year-old Fuquay-Varina girl whose body was found in Jordan Lake early Saturday morning died from multiple stab wounds, authorities said.

Fishermen found the body of Patricia Perez face-down near a fishing ramp off Farrington Road about one mile north of U.S. Highway 64, the Chatham County Sheriff's Office said.



She was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where examiners determined that she had been stabbed.

Family members told authorities that the teen had been missing for about 48 hours and that her mother filed a missing persons report with the Wake County Sheriff's Office Friday evening.

It wasn't clear whether police have identified possible motives for the killing, but deputies said they don't have any suspects. No other information was released.

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/9961677/

Arrests made in stabbing death of teen girl
Updated: August 08, 2011
PITTSBORO, N.C. -- Two men were arrested and charged with stabbing a teen and dumping her body in a lake last week.


Gabriel Lopez and Alejandro Sanchez were arrested and charged with killing 15-year-old Patricia Perez.



She was missing for two days last week before fishermen found her face down near a fishing ramp on Jordan Lake early Saturday morning.

Investigators say Lopez stabbed Perez multiple times and that he was her boyfriend. Both Lopez and Sanchez are expected in court on Tuesday. They are in jail without bond.

http://www2.wnct.com/news/2011/aug/07/7/body-nc-teen-pulled-lake-ar-1278075/

Prosecutor: Fuquay-Varina teen stabbed 30 times
PITTSBORO, N.C. — A Fuquay-Varina teen whose body was found in Jordan Lake early Saturday had been stabbed 30 times, a Chatham County prosecutor said Monday.

Gabriel Alejandro Maricio Lopez, 20, of 600 Church St., and Alejanero Prada Sanchez, 19, of 307 Linwood St., Apt. 23, made their first court appearance Monday afternoon.

Both are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Patricia Perez, 15. They were denied bond.

Perez and Lopez were dating, and authorities said they believe Lopez stabbed her to death after an argument. Sanchez witnessed the stabbing, authorities said.

Fishermen found Perez's body face-down near a fishing ramp off Farrington Road about one mile north of U.S. Highway 64.

Family members told authorities that the teen had been missing for about 48 hours and that her mother filed a missing persons report with the Wake County Sheriff's Office on Friday evening.

Members of a Chatham County Sheriff's Office dive team searched Jordan Lake Monday for the knife used to stab Perez. Maj. Gary Blankenship said investigators also took both defendants to the crime scene to gather evidence and information.

"They may tell you the direction that something may be or where it may be located," said sheriff Richard Webster. "They were cooperating with us earlier today and that's why they were down there."

Lopez and Sanchez showed no emotion as a judge appointed attorneys for them and set their next court dates for Aug. 24.

Williford Funeral Home in Fuquay-Varina is holding a visitation for Perez on Monday from 7 p.m. to midnight. The funeral will be Wednesday at 10 a.m. followed by a burial at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens, the funeral home said.
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9968259/

Suspect in death of Fuquay-Varina girl was in U.S. illegally

One of the men accused of fatally stabbing a 15-year-old Fuquay-Varina girl is in the country illegally, authorities said Tuesday.

Gabriel Alejandro Maricio Lopez, 20, of Apex, is accused of stabbing Maria Patricia Perez-Godinez, his girlfriend, 30 times at Jordan Lake sometime Friday, according to the Chatham County Sheriff's Office.

Lopez, who came from Puebla, Mexico, was charged Sunday with murder. He has since been flagged as an illegal immigrant by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Maj. Gary Blankenship, a spokesman for the Chatham County Sheriff's Office.

Lopez will remain to face the first-degree murder charges, Blankenship said.

Alejandro Prada Sanchez, 19, also was charged Sunday in connection with Perez-Godinez's death.

Perez-Godinez's family planned to hold a funeral today.

Details emerged Tuesday about what happened to the rising Fuquay-Varina High School freshman. But many questions remain.

The chain of events started about 11 a.m. Thursday, when the teen's mother noticed that she was missing, according to the Wake County Sheriff's office who took the missing-persons report.

The officer at the time classified the case as a runaway, on the basis of information provided by Perez-Godinez's mother, said Phyllis Stephens with the Wake County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators say Perez-Godinez might have died about noon Friday - almost 13 hours before her body was found facedown on the edge of Jordan Lake.

But the actual time of the crime might be hard to determine, given the heat and decomposition of the body, Blankenship said. The Office of the Medical Examiner is working on an autopsy.

Authorities believe that Lopez and Perez-Godinez had an argument at Jordan Lake and that he stabbed her about 30 times and left her body there.

Sanchez of Apex was present during the crime, investigators say.

Perez-Godinez was found by a fisherman about 1 a.m. Saturday on the west side of Farrington Road across from the Bells Church pier, Blankenship said.

Her body was found partly on the shoreline with her bottom half in the water, according to an emergency dispatch recording released Tuesday.

The man who called in the discovery, who was not identified in the recording, repeatedly said he was scared, adding that he was afraid "the bad people" were still around.

The investigation

Based on information collected during their investigation, deputies brought Lopez in for questioning.

"We were following up on some leads, and his name came up," Blankenship said.

He declined to say whether Lopez had confessed.

"All I can say is I am very comfortable that we have the right people," Blankenship said.

Investigators are working to recover the murder weapon.

Deputies and Chatham County prosecutor Kayley Taber declined to release a possible motive for the fatal attack.

Both men are being held without bail and arescheduled to appear in court Aug. 24 for a preliminary hearing, Taber said.

A funeral for Perez-Godinez was to be conducted at Williford Funeral Home at 10 a.m. today. Her burial is expected to follow at Wake Chapel Cemetery.



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/10/1402337/suspect-in-death-of-fuquay-varina.html#ixzz1Uf8sziWH

Modified Thu, Aug 25, 2011 05:56 AM
Suspect admits part in Fuquay-Varina girl's slaying


PITTSBORO -- Gabriel Alejandro Lopez, 20, admitted to investigators that he was involved in the fatal stabbing of his teenage girlfriend this month, according to court documents.

Maria Patricia Perez-Godinez, 15, of Fuquay-Varina was stabbed more than 30 times in her chest, back and throat and found face-down on the shore of Jordan Lake on Aug. 6.

Authorities stopped short of saying Lopez and his friend, Alejandro Prada Sanchez, confessed to her killing.

"I will tell you that they made statements that implicated them in the crime, but that's about all I will say," said Maj. Gary Blankenship, spokesman for the Chatham County Sheriff's Office.

Lopez and Sanchez, 19, both of Apex, were indicted by a Chatham County grand jury Monday on charges of first-degree murder. The next court hearing is set for Oct. 24, said prosecutor Kayley Taber of the Chatham District Attorney's Office.

Lopez told authorities that he and Sanchez took Perez-Godinez to the lake shore, according to an affidavit signed by Detective Sgt. Michael Garbarino of the Chatham County Sheriff's Office. Lopez said Sanchez helped to hold her legs as she was stabbed, according to the affidavit, and that the pair then threw her onto the shoreline.

The affidavit does not indicate that Lopez named anyone else who might have been involved. After the stabbing, Lopez told investigators, he used his black chef's hat to wipe off the blood, according to the affidavit, which was filed as part of a search warrant application.

The pair drove away in a 1999 Ford Explorer, the affidavit states.

On Aug. 7, a day after Perez-Godinez's body was found, deputies searched the homes of Lopez and Sanchez for evidence, according to the search warrant.

Authorities seized from Lopez's home a black hat, pants and shirts, part of Lopez's work uniform and a plastic bag containing a pink shirt and white bra, records show.

From Sanchez's home they removed a brown knife sheath, ashes from a charcoal grill, one pair of cloth gloves with long black hair on them, a black and blue gym bag and a pellet gun, according to the seized property inventory.

Chatham County officials think Lopez and Perez-Godinez might have gotten into an argument at Jordan Lake, but they declined to release the cause of the fight.

Days before she died, Perez-Godinez ran away from home and told her cousin she could be pregnant, according to police reports and court records.

In an Aug. 4 text message, she told her cousin that a boy or boyfriend attempted to "coerce her into taking an unknown pill," according to court documents.

Although the autopsy report is pending, the medical examiner has determined Perez-Godinez wasn't pregnant, Blankenship said.

A fisherman found Perez-Godinez's body at 1 a.m. Aug. 6 on the edge of the lake, west of Farrington Point Road near Bells Church fishing pier.

Chatham sheriff's investigators put out an alert that day trying to identify the body. The call came back from Wake County: The girl had been reported missing by her mother a day earlier.

Authorities discovered that Perez-Godinez had a recent history of encounters with several people over age 18, and was "self-reporting a possible pregnancy." The supposed father was an unidentified man about 19 years old, according to court documents filed at the Chatham County court clerk's office.

Chatham County sheriff's deputies traced calls and text messages to and from her phone to La Cocina restaurant in Apex, where Lopez worked.

Lopez's attorney, James Williams, did not reply to requests for comment.



Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/25/1434198/suspect-admits-part-in-teen-girls.html#ixzz1W45ebrfW

Posted: 5:35 p.m. Monday
Fuquay-Varina teen stabbed 23 times, autopsy finds

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A 15-year-old Fuquay-Varina girl whose body was found in Jordan Lake this summer was stabbed nearly two dozen times, according to an autopsy report released Monday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill.

The report said that some of the 23 wounds Maria Patricia Perez received to her chest pierced both her lungs and heart.

Fishermen found the teen's body Aug. 6 near a fishing ramp off Farrington Road, about a mile north of U.S. Highway 64 in Chatham County.

Investigators said Perez's boyfriend, Gabriel Alejandro Maricio Lopez, 20, of 600 Church St., and Alejanero Prada Sanchez, 19, of 307-23 Linwood St., are both charged with first-degree murder in the case.

Investigators believe that Lopez stabbed Perez after an argument and that Sanchez was present for the crime.

They have not commented further about a possible motive.

http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/10269037/