By Michael Bodley and Kimberly Veklerov
San Francisco Chronicle
OAKLAND, Calif. — A 21-year-old volunteer with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office missing since Wednesday was found dead at an East Oakland park, her body bludgeoned, stabbed and burned almost beyond recognition, authorities said Friday.
Karla Ramirez-Segoviano vanished Wednesday evening in San Leandro. Her body — which police said was burned so badly the coroner had trouble lifting a fingerprint — was discovered around noon Thursday at Arroyo Viejo Park.
A woman — believed to have been friends with Ramirez-Segoviano — and a man were taken into custody on suspicion of committing the “disturbing” slaying, said Lt. Roland Holmgren of the Oakland Police Department’s homicide division.
The names of the suspects, both from Oakland, were not immediately released.
“This is something that nobody should deserve to see,” Holmgren said of the crime.
The body had multiple stab wounds and signs of major blunt force trauma, plus burns all over her upper body. The Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau identified her Friday afternoon.
Investigators are handing over evidence to the Alameda County district attorney’s office to review for charges, which could include murder, torture and mayhem, among other serious crimes, police said.
Ramirez-Segoviano was a volunteer member of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office’s Explorer Program for about four years. She was last seen dropping off an acquaintance in San Leandro Wednesday night, police said.
Her parents, with whom she lived in San Leandro, reported her missing when she didn’t come home Wednesday night, which was unusual for the young volunteer.
“Her family members had some concerns about letting her daughter out late at night, so you can imagine,” Holmgren said.
The brutal killing wasn’t believed to be directly connected to her volunteer work with the Sheriff’s Office, Holmgren said — just days after the point-blank ambush killings of two police officers in Iowa renewed fears across the nation of officers being targeted for their work.
Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said the volunteer program Ramirez-Segoviano was involved in can serve as a “step into law enforcement” for some, but it wasn’t clear whether she harbored those aspirations.
“Our worst fears were realized” when the coroner identified the body, Nelson said.
Ramirez-Segoviano’s family is a “very tight-knit group,” Holmgren said, adding that he could “only imagine what type of person she was by the interactions we’ve had with her family. She was a very sweet person.”
And that made the violent crime all the more troubling, he said.
“Whenever you decide to inflict harm on somebody with something as personal as stabbing them, coming into that person’s close, personal space, actually having to utilize a knife and push it through a person’s skin, that is a very personal type of crime, and it takes a certain type of anger,” Holmgren said.
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