The daughters of a U.S. Army veteran whose body was found in a homeless encampment on the edge of downtown are raising concerns about the Los Angeles Police Department's handling of their mother's case.
Lucrecia Macias Barajas, 46, was found dead May 12 by one of her three daughters after she traced her mother's cellphone to a large, tarp-covered shelter in a notorious Westlake cul-de-sac. Another dead body, that of an unidentified man, was also found inside, along with two live dogs, according to officials.
Video taken by a resident showed the daughter wailing on the ground after making the tragic discovery and later begging officers to remove her mother's body.
The LAPD has characterized the death as a suspected drug overdose, and told The Times at the time of the incident that it was not investigating the matter as a homicide.
But the daughters of the dead woman say the LAPD was too quick to rule out foul play.
Among other suspicious circumstances surrounding the death, the daughters say, is that the entrance to the shelter structure was secured from the outside with a lock. Also, they said a person who was in the area hours before the body was found said they heard a woman screaming for help.
Hans Salinas, 25, told The Times that he and his girlfriend had fallen asleep in his car in a parking lot not far from the shelter when the sound of a man and woman arguing woke him up around 3:30 a.m. Sunday.
"She was screaming: 'help, help, I need help" he said, "After that it went silent."
Salinas said the screaming was coming from the direction of the makeshift tent. He said he didn't intervene because he was afraid he would be attacked.
It wasn't until the next day that he and his girlfriend, Josie Vega, 25, who lives in the area, learned of the deaths.
"That poor lady, to find her mother like that," Vega said. "And a day after Mother's Day."
LAPD officials said the department plans to look into the family's concerns.
In a written statement to The Times, the office of Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes Westlake, said that it was in touch with the LAPD to "ensure the family gets the answers they deserve."
Barajas' daughters have asked The Times not to be identified, saying they fear for their safety.
The daughters showed a reporter a police detective's card with the words "overdose investigation" written on the back of it. They also said the app they use to track their mother's phone showed she had arrived at the encampment two hours before Salinas heard the screams.
The same app tracked their mother's phone to a park three blocks away from the crime scene, hours after the bodies had been removed, they said.
The daughters also have accused police of failing to secure the crime scene and allowing evidence to go missing — including security cameras attached to the tent-like structure and the mother's cellphone.
The video taken by the resident and obtained by TV news station NBC4 shows someone pulling the cameras down.
They also said dogs, a pit bull mix and a shepherd mix, remained inside with the bodies for at least eight hours after her body was found. The daughter who found discovered her mother's body said the dogs had bitten into the corpse, though officials could not confirm this.
She said her mom's body was not removed from the makeshift shelter until early the following day, Tuesday, when animal services showed up to take the dogs away.
Los Angeles Animal Services said it responded to the location and picked up the two dogs, which are being held for evidence. They referred any further questions to police detectives investigating the case.
The homeless encampment where the bodies were found was near the end of Huntley Drive, a cul-de-sac at the top of a hill, less than 500 feet from Miguel Contreras Learning Complex and across from the administrative offices of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Residents in the area said the man who lived in the shelter had been staying in the neighborhood for more than three years and operated what they say was a "drive-thru" drug business.
They said complaints were filed with the LAPD about the man and his makeshift home but nothing was done.
At least two signs on the street show the area is designated as a 41.18 special enforcement zone — which prohibits people from camping in the area.
Residents said despite the signs, which were placed there in July 2022, the man continued to remain in the area and sell drugs freely with little consequence from police or the city.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner has not identified the man and said autopsies for the two decedents are not being released yet.
On a recent afternoon, not far from where people had placed candles and flowers as a memorial to Barajas, a homeless man who declined to give his name said he knew the dead man as "Pablo" and that a woman who died in an RV fire on the same street in January was his girlfriend.
The medical examiner identified the woman who died in the RV fire as 23-year-old Angela Castillo.
The deaths bring renewed scrutiny to an area of the city that has been mired in gang violence, drug use, homelessness and organized retail theft. City officials said they have made progress in addressing the issues. Reported crime has dropped in recent months with the exception of burglaries and break-ins, according to LAPD's crime statistics.
City officials said that although they received reports about encampments around Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, those on Huntley Drive were never brought to their attention by the LAPD or the LAUSD. They said the tent where the two bodies were found was on private property and hidden from view. Video from various news stations, however, showed the tent was visible from the street.
The office of Hernandez, the councilwoman, said in a written statement that the deaths were not only "horrific" but also an "unacceptable tragedy."
"Our office is working in close coordination with City departments, outreach teams, and trusted community partners to ensure that those impacted receive trauma-informed, culturally competent support," she wrote. "This devastating loss underscores why we need real investments in harm reduction, housing-first policies, and wraparound services that center dignity, public health, and long-term stability."
In Rampart Village this week, two miles west of Huntley Drive, Barajas' daughters stood beside each other, leaning against a beige wall of an apartment complex. The oldest of the three, wearing bracelets and rings on all fingers, held a framed photo of her mother dressed in an Army uniform.
The daughters said their mother was born in Nicaragua and fled the country's civil war in 1986 with her two brothers and parents.
The daughters said their mother was a person who cared deeply for others, often putting family and friends before herself.
They said she served in the Army sometime in the late 90s or early 2000s, following in the footsteps of her father, who served in the military in Nicaragua.
They believe their mother began using methamphetamine around 2017.
It wasn't until years after that, however, that the daughters learned that their mother used the drug to keep up her energy as she was battling stage 3 lymphoma while working and taking care of them and their three brothers.
"She never told us anything," the eldest daughter said. "She kept that part quiet."
"When I would catch her sleeping a lot she would say, 'I'm sick' or 'it's because I worked a lot'," one of the younger daughters said. "She was always worried about not hurting us rather than telling us the truth."
The daughters say this was also around the time that their mother ended up on the street and became addicted to meth. In a 2020 video interview with Invisible People, a nonprofit that aims to tell the stories of unhoused people, Barajas said she lost her job and house and moved in with her parents. She had to leave the home however, because the landlord said there were too many people living there. She said she left her children with her parents.
Barajas later became sober, she said in the video, and moved back in with family, but was still helping homeless people who had been by her side during tough times.
What led her to the makeshift shelter that Sunday in Westlake is a question the daughters are still trying to answer, but they believe what happened there was more than just a drug overdose.
In the meantime, the family continues to raise money for funeral expenses on GoFundMe, and are calling on the city to do more for its homeless population and end encampments.
"Nothing we do is going to bring her back but we don't want another girl crying because her mom passed away in one of those places," said one of the youngest daughters.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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