The man who saw him stalking the halls of a valley village apartment building before killing a resident in April is linked to another brutal murder since 2022, when the body of an elderly woman was burned, authorities said.
Eric Escamilla, 27, has been in custody since being captured in May and is charged with murder in the murder of Menache Hydra, a resident of Valley Village, inside a fifth-floor apartment. On Monday, Los Angeles County prosecutors amended the case against Escamilla, adding a second murder in 2022 for the murder of OK JA Kim.
“I’ve worked in murder for many years, and it’s more than investigating violent crimes, and I can honestly say that I’ve never seen such a pointless, brutal murder in my entire career,” Det. Sharon Kim told reporters in 2022.
Police say OK Ja Kim, 81, was hidden in half of her bedroom floor on Martha Street in Woodland Hills, 81, in “semi-charred, unconscious, not breathing.” She was strangled and suffered from “a sharp, dull force injury,” police said. The house showed “a widespread sign of arson.”
According to criminal charges filed by prosecutors on Monday, Escamilla stabbed the man about three weeks later during an attempted theft. Details about how investigators linked Escamilla to the crime were not immediately clear.
“It was a team effort,” said Lapd Guy Guy Galon, who oversees the Valley Murder Bureau. He said det. Sharon Kim, who led the Woodland Hills murder investigation, “never gave up” by solving the murder.
Garon said that he did not link Escamilla to other murders at this stage, but provided him with information and “a little broad MO to local law enforcement to see if he was involved in other crimes.”
Escamilla is also charged with violently killing a man in a Valley Village earlier this year.
In late April, the body of Menache Hydra was found inside an apartment in the valley village on the fifth floor, where Escamilla allegedly invaded nearby troops and jumped at him from the balcony, investigators said.
Three days ago, the neighbor had called 911 to report the screams and the struggle from the apartment. The officer answered those calls, knocked on the door, and left without finding anything.
Hydra’s body was found inside his top floor unit at the Ashton Sherman Village Complex by an officer performing welfare checks after a friend became worried. Hydra was declared dead at the scene.
A recording of the police dispatch call until 4am on April 23rd will hear dispatchers reporting calls to field officials. [assault with a deadly weapon] Ongoing… Callers hear two men fight, wrestling, slap and scream. ”
Several law enforcement agencies say officers responded to the scene but never entered the apartment.
The day before Hydra’s body was discovered, LAPD officials investigated the robbery in an empty apartment next door. According to two sources not authorized to discuss the investigation, officers found crushed skylights and dried blood.
Investigators suspect that the murderer had passed through the skylight and entered Hydra’s vacant apartment next door. We then moved to him from the unit’s balcony. Chief Jim McDonnell said there were no signs of forced entry to Hydra’s apartment and later announced an internal investigation into handling of the initial response.
Escamilla was eventually taken into custody at West Hills Hospital on video video of a patrol officer and social media user called “Valley Village Killers.”
McDonnell’s Escamilla told reporters that she lived a life of uncertainty, going back and forth while sleeping on the street at her mother’s house in West Valley. He was convicted of robbery in 2019, which led to him serving in prison for two years, police said.
Prior to the latest allegations, Escamilla was facing misdemeanor charges, including trespassing, in a February incident in the San Fernando Valley. San Fernando police previously arrested him in December.
Hydra’s family sued the apartment owner, and the complex’s management filed a cross claim with LAPD in name.
In the aftermath, McDonnell said he hopes officers will talk to their neighbors and collect more information before calling, he said police cannot rush into every home given the rise in so-called swatting calls.
The walls between Menashehydra’s apartment in Valley Village and the vacant neighbourhoods were stained with blood.
(Richard Winton/Los Angeles Times)
Blood was left in the door handle of the stairs at Valley Village Arpumment Complex, where Menashe Hidra was killed.
(Richard Winton/Los Angeles Times)
When a reporter visited with residents last week, bloody bills and marks were visible on the wall between Hydra’s balcony and the vacant apartment. Also, blood was visible on the door handle at the exit of the stairs when police released video.
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