http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/sto...7b1054b&rss=99130-Thousand Dollar Reward Offered For Information To Solve SLC Child Murder
Last Update: 3/25 3:11 pm
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Reward Offered For Information On SLC Child Murder
Police are offering a reward for information about the murder of Rosa Tapia. (KUTV) A $30,000 reward was announced Tuesday for information to help solve the murder of a girl whose body was found in a canal nearly 13 years ago.
``At this point, we are not any closer,'' Salt Lake City Assistant Police Chief Scott Atkinson said. ``We wanted to bring this up to the community again.''
Rosa Tapia, 6, disappeared from her home at Hartland Apartments, now known as Seasons at Pebble Creek Apartments, in August 1995. Her body was found in a canal near the complex the next day. She had been sexually assaulted and murdered.
Police worked heavily on the case, assigning 15 detectives at one point, but never came close to solving it, Atkinson said.
More than a decade later, investigators know just as little, he said.
The reward is partially the product of lobbying efforts by the Utah Coalition of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, said President Archie Archuleta.
He said the coalition met with Mayor Ralph Becker and law-enforcement officials to talk about what could be done to renew public awareness. The reward is comprised of $10,000 each from Salt Lake City police, the FBI and Dean Foods, the owner of Meadow Gold, a Utah dairy company.
``It's a little late but it's good,'' Archuleta said.
The group's executive director, Frank Cordoba, agreed, saying the investigation lacked community involvement from the start.
``The idea was that not everything had been done,'' he said. ``If you look at all the incidents in the past, somebody had come forward with some information.''
The same group approached then-Mayor Rocky Anderson in 2003 to get the case reopened after it had been shelved for years. There was no new evidence then, either _ just an appeal from the girl's family to keep the murder in the public eye.
Cordoba believes somebody holds the key to solving the case. Police have no suspects.
``There is some evidence,'' Atkinson said. ``We haven't been able to link that to anybody.''
He didn't elaborate on the evidence but said lessons learned in the past 13 years about crime-scene investigations would have been helpful at the time of Rosa's death.
Her family said a scholarship is being created in her honor.
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