www.justiceforchandra.com

[fallout]

Ya know, this story is very troubling. The son is still unaccounted for and the mother is found dismembered. How many of you had heard of this story before?

Thanks for bringing it up in the Laci Peterson thread. Here's the last report from San Francisco Gate
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Torso in bay is identified
DNA matches that of missing pregnant mom

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, September 4, 2002
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San Francisco -- After a month of DNA testing, police have confirmed that part of a human torso found in San Francisco Bay in July was that of Evelyn Hernandez, the pregnant woman who vanished from San Francisco four months ago along with her 5-year-old son.

Hernandez, a 24-year-old single mother, disappeared May 1 with her son, Alex. Police said she was pregnant with another son, and her due date was May 7.

The portion of her torso was found July 24 along the Embarcadero near Folsom Street. Police lab technicians first had to determine whether there was enough DNA to test and then compare it to DNA they could find from her apartment in San Francisco.

"The DNA positively said it was her," homicide Inspector Joe Toomey said Tuesday. "We got (samples from) the toothbrush from her -- that's that."

Alex Hernandez has not been found. Toomey said police assume he is dead.

No one has been arrested in what is now a homicide investigation. Toomey asked that anyone who saw Evelyn Hernandez between 9 p.m. on May 1, when she spoke on the phone with her sister, and 6 a.m. on May 2 call police at (415) 553-1145.

Nancy Hammons, a spokeswoman for Hernandez's family, said relatives aren't ready to assume that Alex is dead. "They are hopeful that the son is still alive and will not give up hope that he might be found," she said.

Police had already concluded there was a strong possibility that Hernandez, her son and unborn baby were killed, and they had reassigned the case from the missing persons unit to the homicide detail. That suspicion grew when the torso was found along with maternity clothing.

Hernandez's wallet was found a few days after she disappeared, in a gutter on Linden Avenue in South San Francisco.

The wallet was found within two blocks of where Hernandez's married boyfriend and the father of her unborn child, Herman Aguilera, worked at a limousine company and as a mechanic for United Airlines at San Francisco International Airport.

Tucked away in the newly purchased wallet were folded-up cash and a disability benefits check made out to Hernandez.

Aguilera, 36, told police he had last seen Hernandez on April 30 -- the day before she vanished -- when he went shopping at Ikea in Emeryville for her, bought a bed for Alex and then met her at San Francisco General Hospital, where she had gone for a routine prenatal exam.

Aguilera's attorney, Robert Tayac, said Tuesday that his client had done everything he could to cooperate with police and was "deeply saddened by the news of the death of his close friend."

"He hopes the Police Department identifies the perpetrator of this horrific crime," Tayac said. "He has assisted the police in every respect possible."

Hernandez's last known contact was when she called her sister in Richmond on May 1. The sisters talked about how Hernandez, who did not have a car, would get from her home in the Crocker-Amazon district to a baby shower.

The next morning, Alex did not show up at Buena Vista Elementary School in San Francisco, where he had been attending preschool. A week later, Aguilera reported Hernandez and the boy missing.

Hernandez came to the United States from her native El Salvador to be with her mother and sister, who were already living here. One sister still lives in Richmond and another lives in Arlington, Va. Hernandez's mother has since returned to El Salvador.

Hernandez attended McAteer High School in San Francisco and later worked as a vocational nurse and in jobs at Costco and at the Clift Hotel. She went on disability earlier this year from the hotel job because of problems with her pregnancy.

E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.
_________________
"Strictly speaking, all is equally inexplicable"
P.D. Ouspensky 1943 from A New Model of the Universe

[fallout]

Here is a little more information about Evelyn Hernandez from two sources.
James
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Remains may be S.F. woman who vanished
Remains may be missing pregnant woman

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, July 31, 2002
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San Francisco -- Human remains found recently near the Bay Bridge may be those of Evelyn Hernandez, the pregnant woman who vanished from San Francisco along with her 5-year-old son, Alex, authorities said Tuesday.

Police have been tight-lipped on what leads them to believe that the remains -- part of a torso found washed up along the Embarcadero -- may be those of Hernandez, a 24-year-old single mother who vanished May 1. She was pregnant with a son, and her due date was May 7.

But authorities said maternity clothes had been found along with the torso, which was spotted in the bay last Wednesday evening by someone walking along the Embarcadero near Folsom Street.

DNA tests will soon be conducted to determine whether the badly decomposed remains are those of Hernandez.

"It's going to come down to DNA," said Capt. Roy Sullivan of the investigations bureau.

Police had already concluded there was a strong possibility that Hernandez, her son and unborn baby were killed, and they had reassigned the case from the missing persons unit to the homicide detail.

Hernandez's wallet was found a few days after she disappeared, in a gutter on Linden Avenue in South San Francisco. The wallet was found within two blocks of where Hernandez's married boyfriend and the father of her unborn child, Herman Aguilera, worked at a limousine company and as a mechanic for United Airlines at San Francisco International Airport.

Tucked away in the newly purchased wallet were folded-up cash and a disability benefits check made out to Hernandez.

Aguilera, 36, told police he had last seen Hernandez on April 30 -- the day before she vanished -- when he went shopping at Ikea for her, bought a bed for Alex and then met her at San Francisco General Hospital, where she had gone for a routine prenatal exam.

Hernandez's last known contact was when she called her sister in Richmond on May 1. The sisters talked about how Hernandez, who did not have a car, would get from her home in the Crocker-Amazon district to a baby shower.

The next morning, Alex did not show up at Buena Vista Elementary School, where he had been attending preschool. A week later, Aguilera, 36, reported Hernandez and the child missing.

Berta Hernandez, a friend and mentor since Evelyn Hernandez was her drama student at age 14, said Hernandez had come to the United States from her native El Salvador to be with her mother and sister, who were already living here. One sister still lives in Richmond, another lives in Arlington, Va., and Hernandez's mother has since returned to El Salvador.

"I had a close relationship with her," Berta Hernandez said. "I had a lot of appreciation for her."

Evelyn Hernandez attended McAteer High School in San Francisco and had worked as a vocational nurse and in jobs at Costco and at the Clift Hotel. She went out on disability earlier this year from the hotel job because of problems with her pregnancy.

Police have traced the man identified in records as Alex's father to Puerto Rico and interviewed him.

Berta Hernandez said her friend was a dedicated single parent.

"I think her main thing was this kid and the new one she was having," she said. "She was very focused on being a mother. She was a great mother, very responsible."

She said Hernandez regularly attended school-parents meetings and was looking forward to the birth of her second child.

"It was her thing, give her children all the instruction he needed to be happy," she said. ''She went to the classroom with her child -- she was always very consistent with that."

E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com.
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As a part of the conference, the Visual and Performing Arts Department at USF will lead a march in memory of actress Evelyn Hernandez, who was murdered earlier this year while nine months pregnant. The march will begin in San Francisco at the Instituto Familiar de La Raza (Mission Street at 25th. Street) on Oct. 5th, 11:30 a.m.

For more information, call Roberto Gutierrez Varea at (415) 422-2071, Peter Novak at (415) 422-5286 or Monica Leifer, assistant director of USF media relations, at (415) 422-2697.

[fallout]

http://www.modbee.com/reports/laci/story/6303045p-7253010c.html

snippet:

"Last year, a San Francisco man reported the abduction of his pregnant girlfriend, Evelyn Hernandez, 24, and her son, Alex, 5. The report was filed in May, one month after the woman had disappeared. Her wallet was later found with money still in it. Her remains were discovered in San Francisco Bay in July and police concluded that she, her son and her unborn child all were killed. The case is still under investigation....."

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Why would the police conclude that the son was killed? Shouldn't there be an amber alert on this?
James
_________________
"Strictly speaking, all is equally inexplicable"
P.D. Ouspensky 1943 from A New Model of the Universe

[rd]

The missing mother probably threw the Amber Alert thing off, James. Until she was found there was probably insufficient criteria for raising the alert (such as seeing the child snatched, etc.) By the time she was found in the bay, it's way beyond an Amber Alert situation of a recently kidnapped child, as far as I know and can tell from reading the Amber Alert site a few weeks ago concerning how it worked.

Just shows again how making people disappear throws the whole justice process into chaos, as Gary Condit and Scott Peterson well know.

rd