Two men and a teenage girl have been charged in connection with the beating death of a 17-year-old Compton girl whose body was found dumped in the Angeles National Forest north of Azusa last month, investigators announced Friday.
The body of Johanna Lissette Mejia Gaytan, 17, was discovered by a person out for a walk just after noon on Nov. 24 in a gully alongside East Fork Road, about a mile east of San Gabriel Canyon Road, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner’s officials.
Her cause of death was not immediately apparent, but coroner’s officials have since determined through an autopsy that she died from “blunt head trauma,” coroner’s records show. The death was ruled a homicide.
“During the course of the investigation, homicide detectives subsequently made three arrests for the murder of Johanna and presented a felony murder filing to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office on December 5,” Deputy Morgan Arteaga of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau said in a written statement.
Deputies arrested Christian Granados, 20, of Los Angeles on Dec. 1, he said. Fredis Antonio Lopez, 20, of Los Angeles was arrested in connection with the killing on Dec. 3, according to sheriff’s officials and Los Angeles County booking records.
Detectives arrested a 16-year-old Compton girl as a suspect in Gayton’s killing on Dec. 6, Arteaga said. Prosecutors filed a murder charge the same day.
No further details regarding the circumstances of the killing were released Friday.
All three suspects are being held without bail, officials said.
The two adult suspects are scheduled to appear for an arraignment hearing Jan. 14 in the Pomona branch of Los Angeles County Superior Court.
