2 Bodies Found in House

Sheriff’s deputies discovered the badly decomposed bodies of a mother and her daughter--last seen by neighbors on Mother’s Day--in an East Los Angeles home, authorities said Monday.

Because the bodies were in an advanced stage of decomposition, deputies could not identify them. But Deputy Britta Tubbs said they are believed to be Martha Israel Lopez, 35, and her daughter Judith, 4, residents of the home on South Simmons Avenue. Medical examiners have not determined what caused the deaths.

Two other members of the family who lived in the house are missing along with the family’s car, a 1995 white Dodge Neon, registered in Lopez’s name, with the license plate number 3LMD011.

Deputies, who discovered the bodies Sunday, on Monday said they were concerned about the safety of Lopez’s son, Victor, 8, and her mother, 65-year-old Garciela Israel. They asked anyone with information to call (213) 890-5500.

Neighbors along the quiet street said they did not think much about the Lopezes’ absence because the four vacationed frequently and kept to themselves when they were home.

What prompted residents to call authorities, said next-door neighbor Jose Orozco, 25, was the terrible stench radiating from the house.

At first, Orozco said, he thought it was trash, left in the house while the family was away on a trip. “But yesterday I brought one of my neighbors over here and he said, ‘Something is smelling bad; we should call the police.’ ”

The first deputy to respond to the call also mistook the odor for garbage. But when other officers pried open a bathroom window to enter the house, there was no mistake.

“The smell rushed out and took over the neighborhood,” said Hector Gonzalez, 31, who has lived in the neighborhood for 21 years. “We were shocked to find out what had happened. Nothing like that happens here.”

Children spilled out all over the neighborhood Sunday to stare at camera crews and reporters, but they stayed away from the Lopezes’ small pink house, perhaps more out of habit than fear.

“The [Lopez] children were not allowed to play with the other kids on the street,” Gonzales said. Both the mother and the grandmother would yell at neighborhood children who tried to approach their yard.

“They were really weird,” Gonzales said of the adults.