Woman Dead, Girl, 6, Is Set Afire; Pair Seized

A 30-year-old Rowland Heights man was arrested late Wednesday after the charred body of his wife was discovered beneath burning trash in a Carson area backyard and her 6-year-old daughter was found with her clothing ablaze in an alley several miles away.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s homicide detectives said they booked Ted Perez and a woman, Glynnis McKinney, 26, at the Carson Sheriff’s Station on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and kidnaping. Both were held without bail.

The episode began when Perez’s stepdaughter, Quiana Marie Cortinez, was found by a Pinkerton private security guard shortly after 1 a.m. in an alley behind 1439 Walnut St. in an industrial area near Central Avenue and the Santa Monica Freeway.

Newton Division Police Lt. Charles Massey said the girl “told the guard she was set on fire by a woman who later fled from the area.”

‘Bright and Lucid’

The child was taken to County-USC Medical Center in critical but stable condition with burns reported over more than 35% of her body. Despite her pain, Massey said, she was “bright and lucid.”

Newton detectives investigating the incident were searching for the child’s mother, Rachael Perez, 29, of West Covina, to notify her. Then, however, they “were led by information” to a home in the 13300 block of South Crocker Avenue in unincorporated county area north of Carson, Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. William Booth said.

“When they got there,” Booth said, “sheriff’s homicide people were already there, investigating a homicide of the mother of the child.”

Neighbors there said they were alerted to flames shooting up from behind the house about 6 a.m. One woman, who thought the garage was on fire, ran to the home of another neighbor who turned a garden hose on the flames behind the house.

As the fire subsided, the neighbors could see that it apparently had been deliberately set in a pile of newspapers and wood that was drenched with a flammable liquid.

“My God,” said the woman putting out the fire, “it’s a body.”

The victim, officers said, was Rachael Perez.

Later, it was reported that the Cortinez girl’s two half-brothers, Quincy Perez, 3, and Ted Perez Jr., 4, had been found wandering in a Whittier shopping center before 1 a.m. They were taken to MacLaren Children’s Center.

Perez was escorted by sheriff’s officers to MacLaren on Wednesday afternoon to identify the pair. He was then taken to the Carson Sheriff’s Station in handcuffs for questioning. A short time later, homicide detectives announced that he and McKinney had been booked.

The latter reportedly had been living in the house at 13338 S. Crocker with Rachel Perez’s three children for about two months.

Neighbors said they saw her arrested Wednesday morning and watched officers tow away an automobile.

Sheriff’s information officers declined to comment on a report that Los Angeles juvenile detectives said Quiana was burned five years ago in an incident that led to an investigation of child abuse.