The family of Erica Alonso, who went missing after a Valentine’s date and whose remains were later found in a ravine off Ortega Highway, is vowing to find out what happened to her. Vikki Vargas reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on May 8, 2015.
Under gray skies, a family said their final goodbyes on Friday to a woman who was found dead in an Orange County forest after vanishing on Valentine's Day weekend.
Erica Alonso vanished after going on a Valentine's Day date with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Orange County sheriff's officials said. The 27-year-old was last seen alive in the early morning hours of Feb. 15 after an argument with him at his Irvine home.
The woman's father buried his daughter, who would have turned 28 in March, as he vowed to find out what happened to her.
"I'm not going to stop," Isaac Alonso said. "I'm not going to stop until we find the person who did this."
Erica Alonso's body was found in San Juan Capistrano along Ortega Highway in the Cleveland National Forest on April 27. An autopsy showed Alonso's cause of death as "undetermined," and her body showed "no obvious signs of trauma."
"I'm pretty sure she was murdered by someone," her father said. "I don't know who."
Isaac Alonso also said he never heard from the man who last saw Erica alive
"We were expecting him to come forward and say, 'How are you? I want to help search for her,'" he said. "I don't know what happened, he never did that."
At the time of her disappearance, investigators said all statements by the boyfriend "checked out."
The night she disappeared, Erica Alonso and her on-again-off-again boyfriend befriended a couple at the Sutra Lounge Nightclub in Costa Mesa after going on a lunch date. The group went to Erica Alonso's boyfriend's home in Irvine, where she and her boyfriend got into an argument outside, officials said.
The other couple left about 3:45 a.m. Erica Alonso left the home about 15 minutes later, and there was no trace of her since, Hallock said. Her car was found about a mile from her home in late March.
Her father said she is now in the hands of God and will always be remembered as a happy, confident and friendly woman.
"We are campaigning now, justice for Erica," he said. "We're not going to stop until we get justice for Erica."
