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Child-death suspects are nabbed
Sariyah Garcia
Sebastian Lopez
March 11, 2007
Brian Chasnoff
Express-News
Valerie Lopez on Christmas Eve beat
her 18-month-old daughter to death, hid the body beneath their South
Side apartment and two months later added the body of her infant
son, officials said Saturday. Yet, the young mother's life at 1302
W. Winnipeg Ave. assumed a predictable, occasionally joyful pattern
as the weeks turned to months and a stench began to settle around
the triplex.
She baked a birthday cake in
January for her live-in boyfriend, Jerry Salazar, and hosted a party
in the room above her daughter's decomposing body. On Valentine's
Day, she brought him fresh roses and a box of chocolates, later
joining guests for a barbeque get-together in the triplex's front
yard.
A dead animal, the couple claimed,
was stinking up the property. They told friends the children were
staying with their grandmother.
"It didn't seem like it bothered
her or him," said Tony Serenil, 41, a tenant at the triplex and
Salazar's cousin. "Like if those children never existed."
Such delusions of normalcy were
shattered last week when a neighbor discovered beneath the triplex
the bodies of Sariyah Garcia and 4-month-old Sebastian Lopez. On
Saturday, a task force of law enforcement officials tracked the
couple to the South Side apartment of an acquaintance of Salazar's,
capping a four-day manhunt, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Tom
Smith said.
 The
couple had hidden in a shed a few blocks from the triplex and
possibly a brushy, remote field near Southwest Loop 410 and Texas
16, Smith said. They were captured about 5 a.m. at the apartment
without struggle.
Salazar, 28, was charged with
injury to a child by omission "because he admitted knowing (Lopez)
was abusing the children," District Attorney Susan Reed said at a
news conference.
Valerie Lopez is escorted out of
the San Antonio Police Department as Chief William McManus follows.
Jerry Salazar is a suspect in the
death of two infants.
Salazar remained in Bexar County
Jail on Saturday in lieu of posting $1 million bond.
Lopez, 19, was charged with one
count of capital murder in the death of Sariyah. She remained in
Bexar County Jail on Saturday in lieu of posting $10 million bond.
Reed said she plans to seek the
death penalty against Lopez.
Lopez admitted to police the child
"would not stop crying so (she) repeatedly struck (Sariyah) about
the head and body," according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Later the child appeared
unresponsive.
"Instead of calling for medical
attention, (she) wrapped (Sariyah) in a blanket, wrapped the blanket
with tape and placed the child in a trash bag," the document said.
She then put the trash bag in a
duffel bag and hid it under the house, the affidavit said.
When Sebastian died, Lopez treated
his body the same way and placed it under the house with his sister.
Questioned Saturday by police, Lopez said she had killed her son
accidentally by rolling onto him, Reed said.
"For whatever reason, evil lurks in
some individuals and they kill children," Reed said. "But we can't
stand by and wash our hands of it."
Police Chief William McManus,
echoing the outrage expressed by many people, called the children's
deaths "an unspeakable tragedy."
Some believe the tragedy could have
been avoided.
Child Protective Services first
became aware of Lopez in 2002 when the 15-year-old mother was
accused of punching her 9-month-old daughter, Alexis Ramirez, in the
chest with a closed fist. Lopez was convicted in juvenile court of
assault on a child.
CPS later placed Lopez and Alexis
in a foster home after an accusation that Lopez herself had been
abused. The next year Lopez gave birth to a son, Jeovoni Lopez, who
eventually was placed in the same foster home.
Lopez ran away from the home in
January 2005, leaving her two children behind. They were later were
adopted. In October of that year, Lopez gave birth to Sariyah.
At first, CPS had no idea that
Lopez had had another child, CPS spokeswoman Mary Walker said.
But a grandmother of Sariyah called
police in November when she suspected the child was being abused. An
officer saw a bruise on the child's face but left after Lopez told
the officer a 5-year-old neighbor had hit Sariyah, said police
spokesman Sgt. Gabe Trevino.
Police have the authority to remove
children from homes, but the officer chose not to after
investigating the mother's claim; instead he called CPS. When a
caseworker arrived at the triplex later that day, no one was home.
CPS failed to make contact with the couple or their children despite
more than 40 attempts between November and March, Walker said.
"This isn't just knocking on doors.
It's peering through windows, talking to neighbors," she said.
Neighbors have countered the
agency's excuses, saying the couple often hung out on the triplex's
front porch, and Lopez worked at a fast-food restaurant just one
block away. Saturday, someone had spray painted "Shame on CPS" on a
wooden board nailed to the triplex.
Lopez's relatives, who had pined
for the young mother's capture, weren't elated Saturday, only angry
and exhausted.
Two of her sisters recalled
Christmas Day when Lopez failed to show up at a family gathering.
She hasn't contacted them since.
They recounted a young life often
spent promiscuously on the streets because Lopez's separated parents
would not allow her behavior in their homes.
Yet there were moments when Lopez
seemed happy to be a mom, said Tina Vara, her sister, who called
police more than four years ago when Lopez struck Alexis in the
chest.
"There would be times she would
play with (her children) and be nice to them," Vara said. "But then
she would just flip."
bchasnoff@express-news.net
Staff Writer Guillermo Contreras contributed to this report.
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