Four people, including a Vista man, were arrested in connection with the kidnapping and death of a 3-week-old Long Beach girl whose body was found in an Imperial Beach trash bin, police said Thursday.
Eliza Delacruz was abducted Jan. 3 after several members of her family were shot in the Long Beach area. Her body was found the following day.
Police said Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian, 47, of Thousand Oaks; Anthony McCall, 29, of Vista; Todd Boudreaux, 44, of Fontana; and Charisse Shelton, 39, of Corona, were all arrested in connection with the case. Boudreaux and Shelton are accused of being accessories after the fact, but D'Milian and McCall have been booked on suspicion of murder, kidnapping, attempted murder and conspiracy, police said.
Long Beach police Chief Robert Luna said D'Milian lied to her boyfriend last year, telling him she was pregnant with his twins. She later told him she had given birth to the children in December while out of the country, Luna said.
According to Luna, D'Milian had never given birth, but in order to further the deception, she needed to find two infants "who matched the ages of her fabricated twins." Luna said D'Milian and McCall "came up with a plan to kidnap Eliza and pass her off as her own child."
Eliza's abduction, and the shootings of her parents and uncle in northern Long Beach, occurred about 5:50 p.m. Jan. 3 at the family's home in the 100 block of West 51st Street. The infant's body was found the following afternoon in a trash bin at a commercial strip mall in Imperial Beach.
Her family members survived the shooting.
Police said Eliza's mother was walking home with her infant daughter from a bus stop at Del Amo and Long Beach boulevards, about 90 minutes before the shooting, when a woman — believed to be D'Milian — pulled up next to them in a black Range Rover and asked about her baby.
Luna said the woman had a brief exchange with the mother, then drove away. He said detectives later determined that D'Milian and McCall had both been following the bus Eliza and her mother were on, in separate vehicles. About 90 minutes after they got off the bus, McCall showed up at the De La Cruz home, shot the three adults and abducted the baby, Luna said.
"The reason baby Eliza was killed remains unknown," Luna said. He declined to reveal how the infant was killed.
Long Beach police had previously released composite drawings of the woman and the gunman, as well as security video showing the SUV following the victims' bus. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday renewed a $25,000 reward being offered for information in the case.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday renewed a $25,000 reward being offered for information leading to the capture and conviction of the assailants.
