SANTA ANA, Calif. - Patricia Lopez, a timid 9-year-old, went missing after class on June 3, 1987. WitnessesWitnesses reviews said that they saw a stocky Latino in his 30s with a thick mustache walking with the girl along the Santa Ana River after school that day. After searching for the girl for two days, her body was discovered by children playing near the riverbed. Patricia had been bludgeoned to death. After focusing attention on several different suspects, the case eventually went cold until the city's newly established cold-case unit discovered a DNA link to the older brother, Resendo Lopez, now 42. Investigators are not stating anything about the new DNA link or how or when they got the break, but they had never suspected any of the members of the large, close-knit family until then.

On Thursday, Resendo Lopez voluntarily responded to detectives' request to be interviewed without a lawyer about his sister's death. The DNA evidence was presented, and he did not dispute it. Even so, resendo's family are standing by him and proclaiming his innocence. "The family seems to be acting like the family of the defendant," said prosecutor Larry Yellin, "and not the family of the victim." Yellin also said he did not know what motivated Lopez to allegedly kill his sister, but detectives said they were not able to discount the possibility that the girl had been sexually molested. The prosecutor, however, said he would not present evidence that the girl had been sexually attacked.