The then 14-year-old would have turned 34 Wednesday. This video was broadcast during the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.
On a chilly, cloudy winter morning in 2006, the body of a teenager was discovered on the loading dock of an abandoned warehouse in an industrial neighborhood in Boyle Heights.
The deceased teen was later identified as Emmery Munoz, a City Terrace resident and a student at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School. The then-14-year-old was remembered as bright and ambitious with dreams of becoming a nurse.
Nearly two decades after her death by strangulation, detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department are making renewed effort to find her killer.
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“She was robbed of a quinceañera, a prom, a graduation, the career she so passionately dreamed of, and so much more," Crystal Munoz, Emmery’s younger sister, said in a news conference with LAPD detectives Wednesday, pleading for anyone with information to come forward.
“Our family still has the strongest desire for closure today as we did when she was first taken from us. Time does not discredit the justice that she is entitled to,” the sister, who was only 6 years old when Emmery was murdered, implored.
The news conference also aimed to show the detectives never gave up on finding the teen’s killer as well as to remember Emmery, who would have celebrated her 34th birthday on Wednesday.
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LAPD News: Hollenbeck Unsolved Murder pic.twitter.com/UMyqyDoY5G
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Despite the detectives’ commitment, there are still no suspects and no solid leads to track down the murderer.
As people’s memory fades after 19 years, there was limited video footage, cellphone records and tracking devices back then.
“People move, people grow up and live their lives,” Det. John Meneses said, adding some evidence was collected on the morning of Jan. 25, 2006 when Emmery’s body was discovered although they did not elaborate.
Meneses said Emmery may have known the perpetrators while investigators are open to any possibility.
“We're hoping that those people who were once young kids are now adults, and they have families of their own, and they understand the need to come forward with that information that we're seeking,” Meneses said.
