Overall, Ventura County experienced a sharp drop in homicides, 22 last year, down from the 40 that occurred in 2013.

Suspects have been arrested in all three homicides that occurred in Santa Paula but in one particular case, the stray bullet that killed Norma Elizalde, more subjects are being sought.

It was the morning of March 15, 2014 when a passerby discovered the body of 21-year-old Ashley Moran partially obscured by brush on a secluded slope in Obergon Park.

Moran, who was in the early stages of pregnancy, had been beaten and strangled; her compact car was found parked nearby. 

Moran’s boyfriend, Antonio Magana, 18, was arrested in August in connection with the homicide.

Less than two weeks later on March 29, Norma Elizalde, 39, was struck down by a single bullet while she stood in her carport behind her High Street home.

Elizalde died when an altercation between reported gang members erupted into gunfire... she was killed instantly when a stray bullet struck her once in the neck. Her husband, working in the front yard, was told by one of their young sons, that she had been shot.

Two suspects have been arrested for Elizalde’s death but Santa Paula Police are looking for others.

The father of two young children, Hector Alamillo Jr., 33, was from a well-known area family who were also downtown merchants.

A resident found the body of Alamillo mid-afternoon on July 23 at a house in the 400 block of Grant Line Street. Alamillo, who did not live at the residence, had been shot.

A week later, on July 30, David Hernandez, 40, a documented gang member, was arrested in Ventura after a standoff with police. 

Police Chief Steve McLean said the declining murder rate - the three homicides were half of six murders that occurred in the city in 2013 - is the result of more officers and aggressive policing.

“Santa Paula Police Investigators worked nonstop, round the clock on these homicides, although we were so short staffed,” said McLean. 

“Of the six homicides we had in 2013 and the three last year we’ve been able to capture a suspect in seven of them... in one case,” the June 2013 shooting death of Joseph Arellano, 24, McLean said police are still seeking Jesse Moten, then 19, and a documented gang member who is suspected of the shooting. 

Arellano, the father of a young son, was shot in front of his grandmother’s North 6th Street home.

“Our guys deserve all the credit for these arrests,” said McLean and the public - often relied upon by police to supply tips and leads - have helped identify suspects.

“The people have really stepped up and helped the police, it’s a great partnership,” said McLean.

As in previous years, Oxnard, Ventura County’s largest city, had the most homicides last year, 12, including three killings that occurred over a three-day period the week before Christmas. 

Also in 2014 there were three homicides investigated by Ventura County Sheriff’s including one each in Fillmore and Thousand Oaks, the latter a murder-suicide that killed Priscilla Coolidge, sister of singer Rita Coolidge.

Ventura had two homicides in 2014 - one involved a 93-year-old man who died of a heart attack following his rescue from an arson fire that destroyed his family’s home - and Port Hueneme also had two murders.

Santa Paula’s six homicides in 2013 was a record matched in 2003; since that time there were eight murders total from 2004 to 2012.