Twenty-nine-year-old Gabriela Jose Lopez was a paralegal from Venezuela who was found stabbed to death in her Adams Morgan apartment three years ago.
Her death technically became a cold case this month, but detectives know who killed Lopez and have a warrant out for the suspect, said Capt. Michael Farish, who supervises the D.C. police homicide squad.
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Wanted is Blanca Ortiz, a 44-year-old Hispanic woman who has since fled to South America, Farish said. Police have information about Ortiz’s whereabouts and U.S. State Department and U.S. Justice Department officials are working to arrest the woman and bring her back to the United States to face the charges, he said. The warrant for Ortiz’s arrest was filed in September 2008, Farish said. He would not provide the name of the South American county where she is living.
Police labeled the killing a crime of passion.
“This was some sort of domestic-related incident,” Farish said.
Farish wasn’t sure how Lopez and Ortiz met. Lopez worked as a paralegal at a Manuel Rivera Esq. & Associates immigration law firm in Arlington, and her colleagues said she was very reserved and private and enjoyed taking tango lessons.
On the evening of Jan. 9, 2007, Lopez was discovered dead in her bathroom by a co-worker who was concerned after Lopez didn’t show up for work for two days and didn’t answer her phone. The co-worker went to Lopez’s apartment at the Gelmarc Towers at 1930 Columbia Road, near the heart of the Adams Morgan entertainment district, and found the front door of her seventh-floor apartment unlocked.
The co-worker entered the apartment, saw the body, then ran to Columbia Road and flagged down a patrol officer. Police found Lopez unconscious with multiple stab wounds. Police believe she had been stabbed at least a day before her body was found. There were no signs of forced entry and nothing was stolen, police said.
