Candlelight Vigil to be Held for Slain Mom

A candlelight vigil is going to be held at a Lincoln Heights Rite Aid for Bree-Anna Guzman, whose body was found dumped off a L.A. Freeway

As many as 100 family and friends of Bree-Anna Guzman, the 22-year-old mother of two whose body was found on a Los Angeles area freeway after she went missing in December 2011, are expected Sunday to hold a vigil for her.

Mourners are expected to gather at 5 p.m. at a Lincoln Heights Rite Aid at Daley Street and East Avenue 26, the location Guzman was last seen on Dec. 26 when she made a trip to the pharmacy to buy cough drops.

Family members and friends spent Sunday afternoon passing out fliers, notifying residents of the vigil.

“She was a mother of two,” said Richard Mangaser, a resident who’s organizing the vigil. “She was not into gangs. She was a victim. She was taken. She was murdered and she was dumped on the freeway. This is putting the whole community in fear.

“The family’s in a lot of pain right now.”

Officials have not officially identified Guzman, but family members believe that the partially-clothed body of a young woman found on the Glendale Freeway on Jan. 19 is that of Guzman.

A Caltrans crew found the body Jan. 26 near the Riverside Drive on-ramp to the southbound Glendale Freeway in Silver Lake.

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Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andy Smith said that Guzman might have been killed at some other location and her body tossed off the side of the freeway.

Detectives were probing possible links between Guzman’s death and that of Michelle Lozano, 17, whose body was found on the side of a freeway on April 25, 2011.

A homeless man spotted the body and contacted police.

The body, which was covered in plastic, appeared to have been dumped, police said.

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