International Arrest
MPD announces foreign arrest in 2007 lesbian homicide
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch have announced an arrest in the 2007 murder of a local lesbian who was found dead in her apartment.
On Sept. 30, members of the international criminal police organization Interpol arrested 46-year-old Blanca Emilee Ortiz of Argentina for the stabbing death of 29-year-old Gabriela Jose Lopez-Hernandez. Ortiz was transported to Washington, D.C. and turned over to the U.S. Marshals Service. Ortiz faces a charge of first-degree murder while armed.
Lopez-Hernandez, a self-identified lesbian, was found dead from multiple stab wounds in her apartment in the 1900 block of Columbia Road NW on the evening of Jan. 9, 2007. The investigation proceeded for weeks with no apparent leads, as Metro Weekly previously reported.
Court records show a warrant was issued for Ortiz on Sept. 29, 2008, almost three years to the day prior to her arrest in Argentina.
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