Parolee is linked by DNA and other unspecified evidence found at the scene where a bride-to-be was stabbed to death and her house was then set on fire.
Had it gone according to plan, Adam Culvey and his fiancee, Chere Osmanhodzic, would be spending the next week and a half counting down the days to their Sept. 24 wedding.
The couple were to exchange vows on the sprawling grounds of the McCormick Home Ranch in Camarillo and then set off to the Caribbean for their honeymoon. But fate intervened in the cruelest way possible.
On July 24, Culvey returned to the couple’s Valley Village home from the store, put his key in the door and began to push it open. He felt resistance. Moments later, he confronted a stranger, who ran out of the house and sprinted down the block.
Culvey said he gave chase and then walked back to his residence, only to find it was on fire. Inside, firefighters discovered Osmanhodzic, dead from multiple stab wounds.
On Tuesday, after weeks of detective work, police identified a parolee as the prime suspect in the fatal stabbing.
The suspect, Omar Armando Loera, 34, had been released early from state prison, where he was serving time for armed robbery. He remains at large.
In July, Los Angeles police announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in Osmanhodzic’s slaying, and released surveillance video that they believed showed the suspect.
But it was DNA and other unspecified evidence found at the scene that provided the break in the case, said Lt. Alan Hamilton of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Loera served 23 months of his 32-month sentence in connection with a 2008 robbery. Authorities said he had multiple prior convictions.
He was released Feb. 12 from Calipatria State Prison and was due to report to a parole agent in Fresno but did not show up.
He was classified as a “parolee at large,” meaning he had absconded from his parole officer, authorities said.
Hamilton said it was not immediately clear whether Loera was still in Southern California or had fled to another jurisdiction or country, most likely Mexico. There were conflicting reports about his immigration status. Among other crimes (he had a long felony record) he committed the crime of re-entering the US illegally after having been deported twice.
The reasons for Loera’s release and parole status were not immediately available. Detectives said Osmanhodzic’s killing appeared to be a random act.
Officials with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said they expected to file charges against Loera in absentia.
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