The City Council today approved $100,000 in reward money in connection with the murders of two Lincoln Heights women – Bree’Anna Guzman and Michelle Lozano. An official said that the county coroner has determined that the body found last week next to a Silver Lake freeway onramp was that of Guzman, a 22-year-old mother who has been missing since Dec. 26 after she took a walk to a Lincoln Heights drug store and never returned. “Our hearts and prayers go out to her loving family and friends,” said Monica Valencia, a spokeswoman for Councilman Ed Reyes.
Reyes requested a $50,000 reward for information on the Guzman case and another $50,000 reward in connection with the murder of Lozano, a 17-year-0ld who turned up dead next to the 5 Freeway in Boyle Heights, a year ago. The case remains unsolved.
The two homicides have generated fear and rumors among many Lincoln Heights residents, with some speculating that the pair of murders were connected and that men have attempted to kidnap women. But the LAPD, in a statement, said it has not been able to determine a connection between the cases.
A Lincoln Heights activist has organized an event tonight – Take Back Lincoln Heights – along North Broadway in response to the fear and rumors generated by the two cases.
Erika Gallo of Lincoln Heights was filling up her car Sunday night at the Arco at the corner of North Broadway and Griffin Avenue when she noticed the sidewalks were practically abandoned. No was walking their dog, running an errand to the store or out for some evening exercise. Gallo, a neighborhood activist who grew up in Lincoln Heights, said she thinks the empty street reflected the fear and uncertainty surrounding the fate of two neighborhood women: Bree’Anna Guzman and Michelle Lozano. Officials are still trying to confirm that it was Guzman’s body that was discovered last week next to the 2 freeway in Silver Lake. Lozano, a 17-year-0ld, turned up dead next to the 5 Freeway in Boyle Heights.
It’s not clear if the two incidents are connected but Gallo decided something needed to be done to restore the confidence of her Lincoln Heights neighbors. So, she is asking Lincoln Heights residents to take a walk on Wednesday night along North Broadway.
The body of a woman discovered by a Silver Lake freeway entrance this morning has been identified as that of 22-year-old Breeanna Guzman, a Lincoln Heights mother of two who took a walk to a drug store on Dec. 26 and never returned to her Humboldt Street home, according to officials briefed by the LAPD. A police spokesman, however, could not confirm the information, but an LAPD official told NBC that there was a “strong possibility” that the body is that of Guzman.
The body was found near the Riverside Drive on-ramp to the Glendale Freeway across the street from Allesandro Elementary. The woman’s family, including her mother, were at the scene of the investigation today, said NBC.
Related Posts:
Body Found Thursday Morning Identified As Missing 22-Year-Old Mom. CBS2
Breeanna Guzman was last seen on December 26, 2011, at approximately 7:30 pm, at her residence in the 2300 block of Humboldt Street, in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. After leaving her residence, she never returned home and has not been seen or heard from since. She was last seen wearing a blue jacket, a pink shirt, and blue jeans. She has a tattoo on the back of her neck, a pierced bottom lip, and braces on her teeth. She also goes by the nickname of “Bree.”
Anyone with information concerning this case is asked to contact Detectives Frank Carrillo and Jay King at at (213) 486-6890 during weekday business hours or contact the Detective Information Desk at 877-527-3247. Refer to case DR #1104-18245.
Arty Maharajh of Glendale did a double take this morning as he was driving past Main and Johnston streets in Lincoln Heights when he came across what looked like a crime scene. Nope. Just a very realistic Hollywood scene – complete with bloody victim, yellow tape, officers and squad cars – created for a TV shoot. Workers at the nearby tortilleria said it was for the TV show “Southland.” Maharajh was not initially sure what was going on until he spotted some film crew workers nearby. “I am almost positive no one gets that shot up that early in the morning,” Maharajh said. Apparently crime in Glendale takes place later in the day.
Perhaps the most challenging part of being a member of the Sacred Heart High School basketball team is the one-mile long journey the girls must travel to get to the Lincoln Park Recreation Center where the team practices. The girls endure the taunts and leers from men and motorists as they jog or walk during their 15-minute trip through Lincoln Heights, said L.A. Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke. He provides a sample of what the members of the Sacred Hearts Comets are up against after they leave the school grounds:
They will pass a barber shop where men will turn their half-shaved heads and shout. They will pass a dry cleaner whose curb is home to a man who reaches out to them from his cardboard box.
One minute, they feel the breath of charging pit bulls, the next minute they hear the whistle of a tattooed wolf, and eventually they will be confronted by the leering driver of a squeaking Chevy that has slowed to bounce alongside them. It’s always somebody like him, and, confronted with the sight of a group of young women walking through gang territory in the middle of the afternoon, he always asks the same question.
“Where you going, ladies?”
The athletes must travel off campus because the 105-year-old Catholic girls school has no gym. In contrast, two of the Catholic boys school serving the Eastside – Cathedral and Salesian – have relatively new athletic facilities, Plaschke notes. Plans to convert a former convent on the Sacred Heart campus have been postponed after a weak economy has plagued fundraising effort. School officials recently launched the first-ever Comets booster club to raise support.
It was nearly 4-1/2 years ago when city officials and Lincoln Heights residents gathered in Lincoln Park to celebrate the return of a carousel equipped with 20 wood-carved horses and chariots to carry a new generation of riders. The park had been without a carousel since the original merry-go-round was destroyed by fire in 1976. The installation of the new carousel - a 1930s model that had been renovated and refurbished – was hailed as a symbol of the park’s revival, according to an L.A. Times story. The city’s spent more than $500,000 to build a shelter for the new, 28-foot-wide carousel owned and operated by GP Rah Enterprises, which operates the Griffith Park carousel. However, relatively few people were willing to pay $1 to ride the Lincoln Heights carousel, which closed and was carted after only three years in operation. Now, GP Rah has put the carousel (pictured in the video) up for sale on ebay at an asking price of $110,000. The auction ends Jan. 19.
Janine Marie was at home in Lincoln Heights during Wednesday night’s windstorm, watching the lights go on and off. Then, at 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, the lights and electrical power went off for good. While the power outage left many people without TV or a working fridge, Marie, a freelance web designer who works from home, was out of a livelihood as long as her electrical service remained disconnected. “No computer, no work, no pay,” said Marie. So, the outage forced Marie to become a nomad in search of power and an Internet connection:
Downtown LA is swamped with freelancers looking for Internet access. I started in the Financial District, had to move due to over crowding at Starbucks. Moved to Bank District by noon. Stray Cat Cafe was very friendly with letting me change my phone. Now am working at IndieDesk in the Fashion District. If you look at the areas the [DWP| has posted with the highest numbers for no power, it’s on this side of town. This is costing our local community money as well as the fact we can not use our local neighborhood resources of coffee shops, places to eat and of course supporting our communities.
When she left home at 11 a.m today, Marie still had no electrical service. At least Marie is not alone. According to the most recent DWP figures, about 1,500 of its Lincoln Heights customers were still without power this afternoon. Here are the others who are left in the dark:
If Emerald City had a utility office, it would resemble the DWP’s customer service center in Lincoln Heights. Sheathed in green ceramic tile and opal glass, the streamlined facade of the Daly Street building includes a marquee featuring two-foot-high letters made from green glass that read: Municipal Light Water Power. All that’s missing are Munchkins lined up to pay overdue electric bills. The building, originally constructed in the 1920s, owes its flashy design to architect S. Charles Lee, who apparently applied many of the lessons he learned creating eye-catching movie palaces to this modest, approximately 3,000-square-foot structure.
You can’t get much higher in Lincoln Heights than Two Tree Avenue, a narrow lane that cuts across a grassy hill and provides views of the downtown skyline and Dodger Stadium. But the city view is not the only eye-catching sight on Two Tree. A trio of boarded up and partially built, three-story homes that hug the hillside are hard to ignore. Construction on two of the homes began five years ago, according to city records. Records for the third could not be found online. Recently, there has been renewed construction activity on the steep hillside, with one of the homes at 3320 Two Tree now up for sale at $279,000, according to Redfin.
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The City Council today approved $100,000 in reward money in connection with the murders of two Lincoln Heights women – Bree’Anna Guzman and Michelle Lozano. An official said that the county coroner has determined that the body found last week next to a Silver Lake freeway onramp was that of Guzman, a 22-year-old mother who has been missing since Dec. 26 after she took a walk to a Lincoln Heights drug store and never returned. “Our hearts and prayers go out to her loving family and friends,” said Monica Valencia, a spokeswoman for Councilman Ed Reyes.
The body of a woman 
The LAPD is trying to find out what happened to 22-year-old Breeanna Guzman, a Lincoln Heights mother of two 
If Emerald City had a utility office, it would resemble the DWP’s 
L.A. Web Awards 
Best of L.A. 
The Eastsider publishes stories and news from the northeast corner of the City of Los Angeles and neighboring East Los Angeles. Who is the Eastsider? Where does the Eastsider roam? 