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CASTRO DOE and suspect possibly named!!!!
Topic Started: Nov 8 2006, 05:00 AM (652 Views)
Ell
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Heart of Gold
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Jane Doe” Suspect Named


By : Jeff Torres : 11/7/06

The baffling three-year-old murder mystery of Castro Valley’s “Jane Doe” took a giant step toward being solved yesterday.

Alameda County Sheriff’s investigators named a “person of interest” in the case, 27-year-old Miguel Nunez-Castaneda, a Mexican national who had worked at the Carrow’s Restaurant where the body of a still-unidentified young woman was found stuffed in a canvas bag behind the parking lot.

Tuesday morning investigators went to Nunez-Castaneda’s one-room cottage at 320 Smalley Ave. in unincorporated Hayward to search for clues that might tie Nunez-Castaneda to the murder.

The Forum learned on Monday that investigators had obtained a search warrant for a un-named Mexican national who lived in the area who might be a suspect in the Jane Doe murder.

Tuesday morning investigators conducted a raid only to find the suspect had fled, apparently to the Long Beach area. Sources told investigators the man had disappeared some 24 hours earlier. A dozen deputies and technicians descended on the converted garage and conducted evidence-gathering that lasted the entire day.

For the last three years Jane Doe’s identity has remained a mystery, despite public appeals and nationally-televised documentaries. The victim was believed to be between the ages of 14 and 18.

Investigators believed the girl had been well-cared for and had come from Mexico. She had been exhumed two years ago so a facial likeness could be made in order to assist in her identification.

Over the years there have been leads, but all had come up empty. At one time, an unidentified man had sent letters to detectives from addresses across the country including Las Vegas. Investigators speculated that the girl had been traveling as an illegal immigrant in a van that was passing through the area at the time of the killing.

The search for Jane Doe’s identity has helped solve a number of other missing persons cases throughout the country.

Investigators traveled to El Paso in 2004 and met with a mother from a group known as “Justica Para Nuestras Hijas,” but were unable to identify the girl. Famed forensic investigator Dr. Henry Lee was also brought in to help in her identification. To date all of those efforts have failed, so detectives say her identity remains a mystery.

Her story has touched the lives of many Castro Valley people including Dave Woolworth who has vowed to find the girls identity.

“One part of me is relieved, I am so thankful for Scott and all of the investigators,” said Woolworth. “To do this to a girl like that...she was a such beautiful girl,” he said. “I hope someday to return her to her mother,” said Woolworth.
http://www.ebpublishing.com/*ws4d-db-query...umn_top®.html

Miguel Nunez-Castaneda
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
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'Person of interest' identified in Castro Valley 'Jane Doe' case
By Sophia Kazmi
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
CASTRO VALLEY - In one of this case's biggest recent developments, Alameda County Sheriff's deputies confirmed Tuesday they are searching for man they consider a "person of interest" in the case of "Jane Doe," an unidentified teen found dead in Castro Valley three years ago.

Investigators are looking for the Miguel Angel Nunez Castenada, 27, who apparently lived in Hayward with Jane Doe before she was killed, said Sheriff's Capt. Dale Amaral. Investigators are not calling Castenada a suspect, but are anxious to find and interview him.

"We received some information among the many, many leads," Amaral said. "Following up on that has led us in this direction ... we certainly very much want to speak to him."

Detectives spoke to Castenada briefly last week, but now they can't find him.

Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek said he believes Castenada is in Long Beach or elsewhere in the greater Los Angeles area, possibly on his way back to his native Mexico. He has previously been deported and is illegally in the country. Immigration authorities are also looking for him and other law enforcement agencies are assisting in the search for Castenada, as well.

Investigators searched two residences in Hayward Tuesday, one where Castenada and Jane Doe lived in April 2003 and another location where they believe Castenada was living at recently, said Sgt. Scott Dudek.

Dudek said he was unsure of the relationship between Jane Doe and Castenada, and that investigators have still not confirmed the girl's name.

"One of the biggest stumbling blocks is that we don't know who she was, and we still don't know what her name is," Dudek said.

Jane Doe's body was discovered May 1, 2003 outside of a Castro Valley restaurant, found stuffed inside a green bag, with a rag down jammed down her throat. She was 5-foot-1, 110 pounds and between 14 and 19 years old.

Based on DNA testing, investigators believe she is of Mexican descent. She wore a red, white and blue shirt and pajama pants. She had died of asphyxiation.

Since the body's discovery, investigators have been searching for the identity of the "little girl," even taking a trip to Mexico to take DNA samples of women from Juarez and Ciudad Chihuahua, where many young girls have disappeared.

The Sheriff's Office commissioned three likenesses, the most recent a bust unveiled in August 2005. The case garnered national media attention, including an article about the case in People Magazine and a story about her on the CBS program "48 Hours Mystery."

A few months after the body was discovered, East Bay residents raised money to help give the girl a proper burial at Lone Tree Cemetery in Hayward. Since Jane Doe's burial, deputies and the public have gathered every May to remember the girl whose name they did not know.

Sophia Kazmi covers Dublin. Reach her at 925-847-2122 or skazmi@cctimes.com.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ws/15954619.htm
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Ell

Only after the last tree has been
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'Significant information' in Jane Doe case to be revealed
By George Kelly
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
The Alameda County Sheriff's Office said it will share "significant information" about the unsolved murder of an unidentified young woman whose body was found behind a Castro Valley restaurant three years ago.

A news conference is set for 10 a.m. today at the Alameda County Sheriff's Youth and Family Services Center, 2020 150th Ave., San Leandro, according to Sheriff's Sgt. P. Kennedy.

Workers found the body on May 1, 2003, behind the Carrows restaurant at 2723 Castro Valley Blvd. Coroner's officials ruled it a homicide.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ws/15961480.htm
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
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Only after the last fish has been
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CASTRO VALLEY
'Person of interest' sought in death of unidentified girl
Deputies want to talk to former restaurant worker
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, November 7, 2006


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(11-07) 20:42 PST -- More than three years after the body of a girl known simply as Jane Doe was found behind a Carrows Restaurant in Castro Valley, authorities identified a former restaurant worker Tuesday as a "person of interest" in the slaying and raided two homes.

Miguel Angel Nunez Castenada, 27, who once worked at the Carrows on Castro Valley Boulevard, is sought for questioning in the death of a girl whose identity still remains unknown, Alameda County sheriff's officials said.

Sheriff's investigators and federal immigration authorities raided two homes Tuesday in unincorporated Hayward -- one on Smalley Avenue and another on West Sunset Boulevard -- and removed items of evidence, authorities said.

Castenada wasn't at either home and may have fled to Southern California, said Greg Ahern, Alameda County assistant sheriff. Castenada may have lived with the girl in Hayward at one point, authorities said. He is an illegal immigrant who was previously deported to his native Mexico, Ahern said.

Sheriff's officials plan to discuss the case in more detail at a news conference today.

The identification of Castenada as a person of interest is the latest break in a case that has both transfixed the area and stymied investigators trying to identify the girl and find who killed her.

"I'm just very impressed with the work the investigators have done on the case and the amount of time and effort they've spent," Ahern said Tuesday. "Hopefully we'll have a resolution because of their hard work."

Somebody stuffed a rag down the girl's throat -- probably on April 22 or 23, 2003 -- then put her body in a green canvas bag and dumped it behind Carrows, where it was found more than a week later.

Her decomposing corpse was found May 1, 2003. She was of mixed race, just over 5 feet tall and had nearly perfect teeth. She had been wearing a knockoff Tommy Hilfiger shirt.

Last year, somebody put a distinctive blue-beaded necklace on the girl's grave at Lone Tree Cemetery in Hayward, where a marker reads "Unknown child of God. Female, 12-17 years of age found murdered in Castro Valley." Authorities said at the time that they believed that whoever left the necklace may have known the girl.

In 2004, sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek and Detective Mario Felix went to El Paso, Texas -- across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez -- to meet with a group of women from Chihuahua whose daughters have vanished or turned up dead in that Mexican state. The women provided DNA samples, but tests showed that they did not match tissue from Jane Doe, Dudek said.

During the past several years, authorities have created a bust of Jane Doe's face, released an artist's rendering of her face and showed reporters a replica of the green bag in which her body was found. They've also displayed a mannequin fitted with clothes like those found on the girl's body -- blue- and-green plaid flannel pants and a red-white-and-blue shirt.

Several leads have failed to pan out, including the identity of a letter writer who initially claimed that he saw a Latino man dumping Jane Doe's body and that the man was irritated after being asked in Spanish if he was "saving a trip to the dumps." In a third letter, the writer recanted statements in earlier letters and hasn't contacted investigators since.

At one point during the three-year investigation, detectives also looked into a firm that shuttles illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, but the company's phone was disconnected, and its contact people were no longer available, Dudek said.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...AGAGM829I47.DTL
Page B - 13
Ell

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Authorities close to identifying Jane Doe
- Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006


(11-08) 13:30 PST SAN LEANDRO -- For more than three years, the girl found strangled and dumped behind a Castro Valley restaurant was known only as Jane Doe. Now she's getting close to having a first name: either Adriana or Ariana.

Alameda County sheriff's investigators said today that they are getting nearer to confirming the girl's identity and are trying to find a man they've described as a "person of interest" in her slaying.

The man, Miguel Angel Nunez-Castaneda, 27, once worked as a dishwasher at the Carrows Restaurant at 2723 Castro Valley Blvd., where the girl's body was found in May 2003, stuffed in a green canvas bag outside the establishment, said Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek.

Sheriff's investigators first learned of Nunez-Castaneda's identity three months ago but waited until a few days ago -- when he returned to the United States from his native Mexico -- to talk to him, Dudek said at a news conference.

They took his fingerprints and asked the man -- whom they knew only by the last name of Nunez at that point -- general questions before releasing him, Dudek said. It wasn't until Tuesday that authorities realized that his last name was Nunez-Castaneda and that he was in the country illegally, Dudek said.

Even so, investigators had no reason to arrest him in connection with the girl's slaying, Dudek said. Now they can't find him.

Nunez-Castaneda is believed to have fled to Southern California shortly before sheriff's deputies and federal immigration agents raided homes where he has lived on Smalley Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in Hayward on Tuesday.

Dudek said Nunez-Castaneda may have been the slain girl's boyfriend or husband, adding that the two lived together for two to four weeks in April 2003 at a one-story cottage on Smalley Avenue. The man last lived on West Sunset Boulevard. Both are from the Yahualica region of Mexico, Dudek said.

Nunez-Castaneda is not being considered a suspect in her slaying at this point, Dudek said.

"We have a primary person of interest -- that's huge. There's no downplaying it. We're fairly confident that he has direct knowledge of this thing," Dudek said.

Somebody stuffed a rag down the girl's throat -- probably on April 22 or 23, 2003 -- then put her body in a green canvas bag and dumped it behind Carrows, where her decomposing body was found on May 1, 2003.

Nunez-Castaneda apparently left the United States for Mexico a day or two after the body was discovered, Dudek said. Authorities had no reason to focus on Nunez-Castaneda at the time, Dudek said.

Investigators learned that the girl had babysat for neighbors on Smalley Avenue, where she may have had relatives in the area, Dudek said. Those relatives didn't report the girl missing because they may have been told that she had returned to Mexico, Dudek said.

Residents of Smalley Avenue recognized the girl and Nunez-Castaneda and recalled seeing them together, Dudek said. The witnesses never came forward in 2003 because some were illegal immigrants who feared they would be deported, while others believed the information they had wasn't relevant, Dudek said.

But now, authorities are optimistic that they'll finally solve the mystery of who this girl is, Dudek said. "Obviously, we're a lot closer than we were, but we're not there yet. We've had peaks and valleys through this investigation, and absolutely this is a huge peak for us."

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file...AGJNM8OKL49.DTL
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
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Authorities say they may have partial identity for Jane Doe
By Sophia Kazmi
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
CASTRO VALLEY - After three years, Alameda County sheriff's deputies think they may finally have at least part of a name to give their Jane Doe.

Adriana or Ariana may be the name of the dead girl found stuffed into a bag and left behind a Castro Valley restaurant on May 1, 2003.

Deputies are looking for a man who worked at the restaurant in connection with the case.

Deputies said they believe the girl, whose identity has not been confirmed, was living on Smalley Avenue in Hayward in April 2003 with the man, a native of Mexico named Miguel Angel Nunez Castaneda, 27. The two hailed from Jalisco and were a couple, and they might have been married, said sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek.

Castaneda was a dishwasher at Carrows Restaurant, where the girl's body was found. He worked there under a different name, but he left the job before being interviewed.

Information about Castaneda's connection to the Jane Doe case surfaced a few months ago, but detectives needed time to confirm his identity, Dudek said. Castaneda has fled the Bay Area, possibly to the Long Beach or greater Los Angeles area, and may be returning to Mexico, authorities said.

"We don't know what his involvement is, but we are confident that he has more information," Dudek said. Investigators talked to Castaneda last week, bringing him in for an interview and taking his fingerprints and photos, Dudek said. Castaneda had given investigators a partial name -- Miguel Nunez.

Castaneda is wanted by the Immigration and Custom Enforcement, or ICE, on suspicion of illegally returning to the United States after being deported Dudek said law enforcement officers did not have the right name and that it took three days to confirm that Miguel Nunez was indeed Miguel Angel Nunez Castaneda.

"We just learned that after he was released," Dudek said, adding since Tuesday that ICE has been working with his department.

Jane Doe's 5-foot-1 body was found inside a green bag. She had died between April 22 and 23 of 2003 and was found badly decomposed. Jane Doe died of asphyxiation -- she had a rag stuffed down her throat. She is now believed to have been between 15 and 17 years old.

The case has been nothing but ups and downs for Dudek's unit, which has tried for the past three years to find the name of the victim. Dudek said he has mixed emotions about this possible break in the case. Authorities are happy about the progress but have yet to solve the case.

"We're a lot closer than we were ever before, but we're not there, he said"

Investigators have received more information since they were able to pair Jane Doe with Castaneda. They have been told that Doe did live at the Smalley address and that she baby-sat neighborhood children.

Although a bust that was made by reconstructing Jane Doe's likeness after death depicted her with long hair down, witnesses have told deputies that the woman they saw with Castaneda wore her hair up.

On Tuesday, deputies searched the small pink house, tucked behind another Smalley Avenue home, where Castaneda and Jane Doe may have lived together.

Deputies also searched an apartment on West Sunset Boulevard in Hayward, where Castaneda stayed recently. Luis Reyes, a man living at the address who is a friend of Castaneda's, was arrested by deputies Tuesday night on suspicion of possessing fake government documents.

Reyes' brother, Jose, said Wednesday that he did not know where Castaneda was and that he had never seen Jane Doe.

"I never met the girl he was with," said Jose Reyes, who said he knew Castaneda for 11 years.


http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctime...ts/15968494.htm
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
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Only after the last fish has been
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Only after the last river has been
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Man Connected To 'Jane Doe' Body FleesGirl's Name 'Adrianna' or 'Ariana'
NEWS
Nov. 9 - KGO - Investigators in Alameda County say they have a first name for the "Jane Doe" whose body was dumped behind a Castro Valley restaurant three years ago -- "Adriana" or "Ariana."

Alameda County sheriff's investigators believe 27-year-old Miguel Nunez Castenada was either the boyfriend or the husband of the victim. He is being called a "person of interest."

They say Castenada and the girl were from the same region of Mexico and lived together in Hayward in April of 2003, the same time her body was found behind a Carrows restaurant.

Sgt. Scott Dudek, Alameda County sheriff's dept.: "He is aware he is a person of interest in this investigation. That's why we believe, in fact, he has fled the area. More than likely he's in southern California as of this morning, most likely in the Long Beach area."

Castenada took off after being questioned by authorities last week. Meantime, investigators have confirmed the victim was 15- to 17-years-old.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=4745537
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
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http://www.ktvu.com/news/10266890/detail.html

Authorities Discuss Progress In Carrows Jane Doe Case

POSTED: 3:12 pm PST November 7, 2006
UPDATED: 7:50 pm PST November 8, 2006

HAYWARD -- Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek said Wednesday that authorities believe they're getting close to solving the sad saga of a teenage girl whose body was dumped behind a Carrows Restaurant in Castro Valley more than three years ago.

Until now, authorities have referred to the girl, whom they think was 15- to 17-years-old, only as the Castro Valley Jane Doe, because they didn't know her name.

But Dudek said witnesses have come forward to say that her name is either Adriana or Ariana.

"We have some significant information," he said.

Authorities also have identified former Carrows employee Miguel Angel Nunez Castenada, 27, as a "person of interest" in the case, Dudek said.

Castenada and the slain girl, who was found with a rag stuffed in her throat on May 1, 2003, are from the same area in Mexico and had some type of relationship, he said. They may have been married or were boyfriend and girlfriend, Dudek said.

As previously reported on KTVU, sheriff's investigators and federal immigration authorities served search warrants at two homes in unincorporated Hayward on Tuesday to gather evidence in the case, but Castenada wasn't at either home.

Dudek said authorities think Castenada may have fled to Southern California but are "optimistic that he's still in the U.S." and hasn't crossed the border into Mexico.

Dudek said it's a big help to authorities to know the girl's first name.

"The puzzle is getting tighter and tighter," he said.

Dudek said if authorities find Castenada, they will arrest him only on illegal immigration charges at this time, as they don't yet have enough information to arrest him on homicide charges.

"We need a linkage" between Castenada and the girl that's firm before he can be arrest on homicide charges, according to Dudek.

He said Castenada had previously been deported to Mexico and currently is in violation of his deportation order.

They also have taken a second man in custody on illegal immigration charges and have questioned him about the murder case.

Castenada was interviewed by deputies last week, but was believed to have fled the area and possibly be headed to Mexico through Southern California.

"At this point, we believe he fled to Long Beach -- the Los Angeles area and he's trying to get out of the U.S. back to the state of Jalisco," Alameda Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Scott Dudek told KTVU on Tuesday.

The case tugged at the Bay Area's heartstrings even since the unidentified girl's body was found by Carrow's workers on May 1, 2003. She appeared to have been strangled to death then stuffed into a large green canvas bag and left behind the restaurant.

She was described as mixed race, between 12 and 17 years old at the time of her death, about 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighing 110 pounds with long, dark brown wavy hair and a light to medium complexion.

When she was found, she was wearing a red, white and blue "Tommy Sports" shirt, blue plaid pajama pants, ankle socks with a snowflake pattern and gold hoop earrings.

The investigation into the death has taken many twists and turns. A sample of DNA from taken from the body by Alameda authorities, who teamed up with a group called Justicia Para Nuestras Hijas, or Justice for Our Daughters in El Paso, Texas, to compare it with the DNA of woman from nearby Chihuahua, Mexico, who have had daughters disappear.

In May 2005, a necklace was discovered at her Bay Area gravesite. Alameda authorities said at the time they felt that whoever left it there may have information about the case. It was not known if the necklace guided authorities to Castenada.
Copyright 2006 by KTVU.com and Bay City News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
Lauran

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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CASTRO VALLEY
Jane Doe at restaurant now has a first name
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, November 9, 2006


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More than three years after the crime, investigators said Wednesday they've discovered the first name of the young Jane Doe whose body was dumped behind a Castro Valley restaurant -- Adriana or Ariana.

Alameda County sheriff's investigators expressed optimism that they would soon confirm her identity and locate a "person of interest" in her slaying -- a former restaurant worker who may have been romantically linked to her and has fled the Bay Area.

"Obviously, we're a lot closer than we were, but we're not there yet," said Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek. "We've had peaks and valleys throughout this investigation, and absolutely this is a huge peak for us. By no means are we in a celebratory state."

Dudek said investigators want to question Miguel Angel Nunez-Castaneda, 27, who once worked as a dishwasher at the Carrows Restaurant at 2723 Castro Valley Blvd. The girl's body was found in May 2003, stuffed in a green canvas bag outside the establishment. She died of asphyxiation from a rag pushed down her throat, the Alameda County coroner said.

Dudek said Nunez-Castaneda may have been the slain girl's boyfriend or husband, adding that the two lived together for two to four weeks in April 2003 at a one-story cottage on Smalley Avenue in Hayward. The man last lived on West Sunset Boulevard. Both are from the Yahualica, Jalisco, region of Mexico, Dudek said, adding that a trip there by investigators is "inevitable."

Investigators learned of the girl's first name and Nunez-Castaneda's identity several months ago but waited until last week -- when he returned to the United States from his native Mexico -- to talk to him, Dudek said at a news conference. He did not disclose how investigators learned the girl's name and Nunez-Castaneda's identity.

They took his fingerprints and asked the man -- whom they knew only by the last name of Nunez at that point -- general questions before releasing him, Dudek said. It wasn't until Tuesday that authorities realized that his last name was Nunez-Castaneda and that he was in the country illegally, Dudek said.

Now they can't find him. He is not a suspect in her slaying at this point, Dudek said.

"We have a primary person of interest -- that's huge. There's no downplaying it. We're fairly confident that he has direct knowledge of this thing," Dudek said.

Nunez-Castaneda is believed to have fled to Southern California shortly before sheriff's deputies and federal immigration agents raided homes where he has lived on Smalley Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in Hayward on Tuesday, Dudek said.

Somebody stuffed a rag down the girl's throat -- probably April 22 or 23, 2003 -- then put her body in a green canvas bag and dumped it behind Carrows, where her decomposing body was found on May 1, 2003. Nunez-Castaneda apparently left the United States for Mexico a day or two after the body was discovered, but at the time authorities had no reason to focus on him, Dudek said.

Investigators learned that the girl had babysat for neighbors on Smalley Avenue; she may have had relatives in the area, Dudek said. Those relatives didn't report the girl missing because they were told that she had returned to Mexico, Dudek said.

Some residents of Smalley Avenue remembered seeing the girl and Nunez-Castaneda together, Dudek said. The witnesses never came forward in 2003 because some were illegal immigrants who feared they would be deported, while others believed that the information they had wasn't relevant, Dudek said.

Jose Reyes, 31, whose brother Luis, 29, was arrested on suspicion of possessing false documents during the raids Tuesday, expressed shock Wednesday that Nunez-Castaneda, his former roommate on West Sunset Boulevard, was wanted for questioning. Nunez-Castaneda had also worked as a dishwasher at Lyon's restaurants in Castro Valley and Milpitas, Reyes said.

"He's a good guy. He was always on time for work," Reyes said. After the girl's body was found, Nunez-Castaneda remarked that he always swept the parking lot and didn't see anything, according to Reyes.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c.../09/JANEDOE.TMP
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
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Only after the last fish has been
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Only after the last river has been
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Only then will you realize
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