Unsolved South LA Murder Leaves Family Heartbroken

The calls to 911 came in almost immediately.

"We heard two series of gunshots," one caller claimed.

"There's a lot of shooting going on over here," came another.

But the most chilling came from a woman who found the victim.

"What's wrong with her?" the 911 operator asked.

"I don't know what's wrong with her," she screamed, "she's (expletive) not breathing! The window's broken. I don't (expletive) know what's wrong with her!"

It was raining the night of Dec. 2, 2012 on Nicolet Avenue near Martin Luther King Boulevard in the Baldwin Village area of South Los Angeles.

The 911 operator continued, "Tell me what happened."

The caller said she didn't know and then gave details of how she found the victim. "I was going to pull up and park my car and I saw that her door was open," she said. "Her legs were hanging out, I thought she was asleep and I realized that she's not asleep. I got in the car and I looked at her and she's" - a brief pause in the 911 audio, then a cry - "Oh my God!"

It is a 911 call that would later lead to a moment that would change a family's life forever.

The Criminal Gang Homicide Division of LAPD's South Bureau says the bullets were scattered. At least six of them struck 27-year-old Candice Altamirano. She was found with her head slumped over the steering wheel of her Chevy Colorado.

"My firstborn," says mother Antonett Pasillas. "My only daughter, a really good girl."

Altamirano was just days away from her 28th birthday. She had spent the evening with friends at a club in West Hollywood. Police say they had made plans to meet at one of the woman's apartment in Baldwin Village. They say Altamirano waited for 30 minutes.

"It's funny that if all these girls were together, why did they have different stories?" It's a question Altamirano's younger brother Zach Pasillas says he repeats to himself over and over, ever since his sister died.

"It's pathetic," he says. He believes one of his sister's friends knows more than what they're telling police. "She didn't deserve this."

The 911 call plays over and over in his head, too.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry!" It's that audio clip that he says stings the most.

Detectives say that frantic 911 call came from one of Altamirano's friends who was out with her that night.

"At this point, everybody's a suspect," says Det. Eloy Ochoa of the LAPD South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide. Ochoa was there the night the investigation began.

Photographic evidence from the scene shows shell casings scattered across the pavement and grass. Detectives believe the shooter walked up to the truck and shot through the passenger window, striking Altamirano. She was still breathing when paramedics took her to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Altamirano's mother recalls the moment the doctor gave her the news.

"He said, 'I'm sorry, I tried to save her but I couldn't.'"

While detectives say they have the facts of the case lined up, that one piece of evidence that can identify the killer eludes them.

"We don't have an eyewitness telling us they know who did it, or that they've received a confession from that person with details of what they did and why they did," Ochoa said.

Ochoa says the area is surrounded by apartments and unobstructed views of the shooting scene.

"I'm sure someone might have seen something more than what they're telling us," he says, adding that the women who Altamirano was meeting that night moved out of the neighborhood within a week of the shooting. He's hoping the time since the murder may open doors for anyone with information to come forward.

"In a case like this, you can say that time might actually be on our hand now because if someone did something, it always seems like they'll want to get things off their chest," Ochoa said.

LAPD South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide can be reached by calling the detectives directly at 323-786-5110. Callers can remain anonymous.

A proposed $50,000 reward will go before the City Council for approval. Detectives hope it will lead to information to find and convict the killer.

For Altamirano's family, they just want closure.

"Please tell," Altamirano's mother says. "Let her rest. Let us rest as a family. I want the person who did this to her to feel the pain I feel."
 

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