A man found dead in a ravine 35 years ago has been identified, and investigators are now searching for the man’s family, California officials say.
In March 1989, a man’s body was found “in a ravine off Highway 79” in Beaumont, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said in an April 17 news release.
The man, who was “wearing ‘Cacharel’ brand green and tan short-sleeve shirt and ‘DeeCee’ brand white jeans work pants,” had been shot once in the chest, prosecutors said.
For decades, prosecutors said the man’s identity remained a mystery.
Through investigation, however, the county’s cold case unit recently identified the man as Jorge Lopez-Serano, a Mexican national, according to prosecutors.
“The Mexican Consulate confirmed his identity,” prosecutors said.
The consulate also shared that “Lopez-Serrano had a wife and children while residing in La Paz, Mexico in 1987,” prosecutors said.
Prior to his death, prosecutors said Lopez-Serrano had been arrested several times.
During one incident, prosecutors said Lopez-Serrano was arrested in San Diego by U.S. Border Patrol agents “on suspicion of smuggling undocumented immigrants into the United States.”
In a separate arrest, prosecutors said he was accused of stealing a car in Los Angeles.
“He was known to use multiple names and multiple dates of birth during those arrests,” prosecutors said.
In hopes of bringing “closure to this case,” prosecutors said investigators are looking to the public for any information that may help identify Lopez-Serrano’s family members.
Anyone with information is asked to contact investigators at 951-955-5567, or email coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org.
Beaumont is about an 80-mile drive east from Los Angeles
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