Mother Found Dead, 5-Year-Old Daughter Taken to Mexico

A Mother Was Found Dead. Her 5-Year-Old Daughter Was Gone.

Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department arrived at a home on South Alsace Avenue in the West Adams neighborhood on May 25, 2026, and found 36-year-old Marisol Fregoso dead inside. She had died as a result of violence, police said. Her 5-year-old daughter, Daleyza Fregoso, was not in the home and was not found anywhere on the property.

Surveillance footage from a San Ysidro parking garage showed Daleyza leaving with her father, 40-year-old Ruben Fregoso, just after 7:30 a.m. on May 24 - the day before police discovered Marisol’s body. They were carrying luggage. Investigators believe Ruben Fregoso crossed into Mexico with the child shortly after and has not returned to the United States.

The Charges and the Amber Alert

Ruben Fregoso was charged with one count of murder and a misdemeanor count of child abuse. Prosecutors allege he killed Marisol Fregoso - his girlfriend and Daleyza’s mother - before fleeing across the border with their daughter. If convicted as charged, he faces 25 years to life in state prison.

An Amber Alert was issued for Daleyza on May 26, covering Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego counties. Authorities distributed surveillance images of Ruben Fregoso and appealed to the public for help locating either him or the child. As of early June 2026, neither has been found.

Who Marisol Fregoso Was

Marisol Fregoso was 36 years old. She lived with her daughter in West Adams, a residential neighborhood in southwestern Los Angeles. Friends and neighbors described her as devoted to Daleyza - a little girl whose days had the ordinary rhythm of school, home, and family. Marisol did not have the chance to call for help or report what was happening. When police arrived for the welfare check on May 25, she was already gone, and Daleyza had been across the border for over 24 hours.

Neighbors in West Adams told local reporters that Marisol was a familiar, friendly presence on the block - the kind of mother who knew her neighbors by name and whose daughter was always nearby. The welfare check that found her was made by someone who noticed she had not been seen and was concerned. That instinct to check on her led to the discovery of what prosecutors are calling a homicide.

The LAPD launched an immediate cross-border investigation, coordinating with federal authorities and Mexican law enforcement to locate Ruben Fregoso. His last confirmed position was the San Ysidro border crossing on the morning of May 24.

A Child Across the Border

Daleyza Fregoso was 5 years old when surveillance cameras last captured her image - walking beside her father through a parking garage near the U.S.-Mexico border at first light, carrying luggage. There is no public indication she has been harmed, but she remains missing and no authority has confirmed her location.

Cases involving suspects who cross into Mexico present significant challenges for U.S. investigators. Extradition proceedings are slow and complex. Cross-border coordination requires diplomatic channels that do not move at the speed of a missing child case. The Amber Alert system, effective within the United States, has no formal equivalent on the Mexican side. Law enforcement in both countries have been given Fregoso’s description and surveillance images.

What Investigators Are Asking

The LAPD has asked anyone with information about Ruben Fregoso or Daleyza to contact law enforcement or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children immediately. Authorities say any confirmed sighting - on either side of the border - should be reported without delay.

Marisol Fregoso was a mother in her mid-thirties who raised her daughter in a West Los Angeles neighborhood and was killed before police even knew to start looking. The people who knew her are left holding two things at once: grief for a woman who should still be alive, and the unanswered question of when a little girl named Daleyza gets to come home.

References: Amber Alert for Daleyza Fregoso | Daleyza Fregoso Abducted | Amber Alert, Murder Suspect Spotted Near Mexico Border