TAYLORSVILLE — Leaders of the Hispanic community joined Taylorsville police Tuesday in pleading for the public to help investigators solve the homicides of two Hispanic victims.
"We're self destructing. We're destroying ourselves, and it's got to stop. We have to not protect these people committing these crimes," said Robert Gallegos, head of the group RAZ PAC. "We've got to work together."
Detectives have few leads or witnesses in the two homicides, even though they happened in very public areas. Police are worried that witnesses to the slayings are afraid to step forward because they're undocumented.
Both of the victims in the unsolved homicides were Mexican nationals.
But Taylorsville Police Sgt. Rosie Rivera said regardless of the race or citizenship status of either the victims or the witnesses, it shouldn't stop anyone from reporting what they saw to police.
"These are real victims," she said. "They didn't deserve what happened to them."
Luis Miguel Chavez-Gonzales, 21, was shot in the head Aug. 27, 2005 while sitting in the passenger seat of a car traveling south on Redwood Road near 4300 South.
Another car reportedly pulled up alongside the vehicle and several shots were fired into Chavez-Gonzales' car, striking Chavez-Gonzales in the head. Investigators were looking for a white 1986 Mercury Grand Marquis with chrome wheels.
In an unrelated case, Sonja Mejia, 29, who was six months pregnant, was strangled to death in a unit at the Fairway Apartments, 1167 W. Clubhouse Drive, on Feb. 9. Her unborn son did not survive.
"We just don't have a lot of leads in this case," Rivera said.
In fact, the last press conference police held on the homicide generated no phone calls.
There were no signs of forced entry, and Rivera said it was a "violent" attack. Police later found Mejia's missing car which yielded some evidence, Rivera said.
Because the daytime slaying happened in a populated apartment complex, investigators believe someone had to have seen or heard something.
Members of Mejia's family and her common-law husband have been eliminated as suspects.
Detectives want to question a man seen in the area that afternoon by a neighbor. He is described as a male Hispanic in his mid '20s. He was about 5-foot-6 with a medium build and short dark hair combed straight back. He was last seen wearing denim shorts past his knees, white tennis shoes with no socks and a white T-shirt.
"We need to find out who did this because we do not want this to happen again to anybody," Rivera said.
Hispanic leaders delivered the message in both English and Spanish Tuesday, encouraging members of the Latino community to help police.
"It's important to reach out to the community," Tony Yapias said. "The community needs to know if they help the department, they will protect them."
The message from the group was that the Latino community was part of the Taylorsville community and helping police was being part of the community.
Anyone with information was asked to call police at 743-7000 or 955-2000. Or if someone from the Hispanic community feels uncomfortable calling police, they can call local Hispanic leader David Salinas at 474-3655.
Taylorsville police also announced that they were screening charges with the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office in the death of 5-month-old Estella Lacey.
Lacey died Dec. 28 after ingesting methamphetamine she found lying around her house in a plastic bag, Rivera said. The infant went through several stages of overdosing for two days before dying. Her mother and boyfriend did not call 911, she said.
After the baby died, the mother and boyfriend allegedly dumped her at a home in Murray before calling police, Rivera said.
Rivera said there was enough meth the baby's system for an adult to have overdosed.
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