The investigation into the slaying of 17-year-old Norma Lopez in Moreno Valley may be focusing on a teacher's aide who worked at the girl's high school.
Police on Wednesday searched a home and impounded an SUV on Tuesday a few blocks from where the high school student was apparently abducted.
Eric M. Muswaswa, 42, who lives at the house with his wife and son, was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of justice and resisting a police officer on the day the search warrant was executed, Riverside County Jail records show. Muswaswa was released later that day on $2,500 bail, records show.
In an interview with CBS2 Wednesday evening, Eric Muswaswa appeared outside his home and through an attorney said his family had nothing to do with Norma's slaying. The attorney, Miles Clark of Riverside, said investigators who searched the home focused on the couple's son — Lazarus Tasby, 25 — and removed several items from his room. They also confiscated the family's green Mitsubishi Montero.
"In no way is Eric or his wife, Wanda, or his son, Lazarus, responsible for the death of anyone," Clark said.
School records show that Tasby was a teacher's aide at Valley View High. He worked at the school from March 2007 to November 2009, a district official told the Press-Enterprise. Shortly before leaving the teacher's aide job, Tasby was charged with soliciting a prostitute in Riverside on Oct. 29, Riverside County Superior Court records show. He pleaded not guilty and the case is pending.
[Updated at 8:52 a.m.: Police have not commented on any suspects in the case, and it's unclear whether Lazarus still lives at the home that was searched.]
The home on Pegasus Way is also near Valley View High School, which Norma attended. Police believe the teenager was seized the morning of July 15 while she was walking to a friend's house after a summer school biology class.
Norma's disappearance triggered a citywide search until her body was found in a field on the eastern edge of town five days later by a resident doing yard work. The isolated area is just off the 60 Freeway and is surrounded by vast wheat fields.
-- Phil Willon
Photo: Sister Elizabeth Lopez at memorial for Norma. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times