A Southern California man was convicted of kidnapping and raping a 6-year-old girl in a case that went cold before advancements in DNA testing led to his arrest.
Francisco Javier Lopez, 51, of Montebello, was convicted of sexually assaulting the girl after he saw her in a Santa Ana area in 2012.
On July 15, 2012, the girl was playing with a 4-year-old boy outside her house in the 1400 block of South Townsend Street.
He drove her to a nearby parking area and sexually attacked her. Detectives reported that she was “dumped out of the vehicle” and abandoned near her neighborhood 90 minutes to two hours later.
He fled the scene, leaving investigators with few leads apart from a rough description of the man and his vehicle. DNA was collected from the crime scene and sent to a state database, but no matches were found. The DNA was submitted annually in the hopes of discovering a match, but the case went unsolved.
In 2014, a woman linked to Lopez was convicted of an unrelated offense in Orange County, and her DNA samples were transmitted to a local DNA database as well as the statewide system, according to the Orange County Register. The DNA remained in the database for several years.
For “particularly heinous” crimes, state crime lab personnel can look for familial matches, in which a DNA profile from a crime scene is linked to family members of suspects.
However, it wasn’t until 2018 that state DNA scientists were able to compare male and female family members’ DNA after the quantity of genetic markers rose.
Following this discovery, detectives selected Lopez as a suspect and initiated surveillance on him. Investigators gathered “discarded evidence” that revealed Lopez’s DNA, which was determined to be a match to the DNA obtained during the child’s rape.
Lopez was arrested in 2019 by Santa Ana Police and charged with many counts of kidnapping and sexual abuse.
On September 16, 2025, Lopez was convicted of 11 counts, including kidnapping and sexual abuse.
- 1 felony count of kidnapping to commit a sex offense
- 1 felony count of oral copulation of a child under the age of 11
- 3 felony counts of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 11
- 1 felony count of sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 11
- 5 felony counts of a forcible lewd and lascivious act with a child under the age of 14
According to police, Lopez lived in the same apartment building as the young girl but had no prior contact with her or her family before the kidnapping and rape.
The Lopez case is the first in Orange County history where a woman’s DNA was used to identify a male suspect and just the second in California history.
“If the Orange County District Attorney’s Office did not have the local DNA database, or we did not have the ability when we have a conviction to submit this sample to the state database, [the case of] a 6-year-old who was brutally kidnapped and sexually molested on the streets of Orange County would arguably continue to remain unsolved today,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer following Lopez’s arrest.
Lopez’s sentencing hearing is scheduled on October 9.
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