Husband flees country before missing wife’s body is found in forest, CA cops say
A missing woman has been found dead in a forest, and her husband — a person of interest in her killing — has fled the country, California deputies said.
Sheylla Cabrera, 33, was first reported missing Aug. 12, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in an Aug. 19 news release.
As detectives investigated her disappearance further, they found video surveillance on Aug. 13 that showed Cabrera’s “husband dragging a large object in a large piece of material from the apartment complex” in Lancaster, where the two lived with their three young sons, deputies said.
McClatchy News is not naming the 36-year-old husband as he has not been formally charged.
Additional information led deputies to suspect foul play in Cabrera’s disappearance, and homicide detectives joined the investigation, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies said they entered Cabrera’s three children into a missing persons system.
An investigator requested multiple search and rescue agencies to search Angeles National Forest on Aug. 13 and notified the Mexican General Consulate and the Peruvian General Consulate about Cabrera’s husband, deputies said.
Soon after, deputies said they were notified that the husband had already fled the country.
Four days after Cabrera was reported missing, deputies said her children were found in Peru and taken into protective custody Aug. 16.
The same day, the Montrose Mountain Search and Rescue Team told deputies they spotted an object that looked similar to the one the husband was seen taking “over the side of an embankment” in the forest.
An investigator found that the material concealed Cabrera’s body, according to deputies.
The Los Angles County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine Cabrera’s cause of death, deputies said.
Investigators will present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, suggesting murder charges be filed against Cabrera’s husband and requesting proper documentation to bring him back to the country, deputies said, adding that they believe he is in Peru.
Lancaster is about a 60-mile drive north from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 11:22 AM with the headline "Husband flees country before missing wife’s body is found in forest, CA cops say."
