Crime & Safety
Woman's Body Likely Dumped Off Ortega Highway: Murder Trial Begins
Even though the body of 33-year-old Katherine Mary Neitzke of Romoland has not been found, her boyfriend was charged with murder.
SOUTHWEST RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Pretrial motions are slated to start Friday ahead of jury selection for the trial of a man accused of killing his 33-year-old girlfriend, whose remains are the subject of an ongoing search in Southwest Riverside County.
Hugo Lionel Hernandez, 46, of Oceanside is charged with murder for the 2019 slaying of Katherine Mary Neitzke of Romoland.
Hernandez's case was assigned Thursday to the courtroom of Riverside County Superior Court Judge Steven Counelis, who directed the prosecution and defense to submit trial briefs and motions Friday at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
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The judge is expected to issue rulings and set the schedule for proceedings, with jury selection likely at the beginning of next week.
Hernandez, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside, was arrested last year following an extensive sheriff's department investigation into Neitzke's disappearance.
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According to sheriff's Sgt. Steve Brosche, the victim vanished from her Mapes Road residence in the unincorporated community of Romoland, south of Perris, on July 26, 2019.
Initially, detectives treated the case as a missing person investigation, but by the summer of 2021, they turned their attention to Hernandez, the victim's boyfriend, who soon became the focus of a homicide investigation, Brosche said.
He said that after additional, undisclosed evidence was uncovered, detectives presented their case to the District Attorney's Office, culminating in a criminal complaint alleging murder in January 2022.
The whereabouts of Neitzke's remains remain unknown, but detectives believe the body may have been dumped somewhere along the Ortega (74) Highway.
A possible motive and details regarding the way in which the alleged killing occurred were not provided.
A second defendant, Edilberto "Eddie" Avena, was charged as an accessory after the fact. He pleaded guilty to the felony count in March and remains free on a $50,000 bond. He's slated to be sentenced on Feb. 9.
Hernandez has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County, and neither does Avena.
