Placerville mourns boy, 11, in suspicious death. Police releasing few details on case
The Placerville Police Department is continuing to investigate the death of 11-year-old Roman Lopez as suspicious, but official details remain scarce.
Early Monday afternoon, a small memorial for the young boy sat on the damp sidewalk outside a home on Coloma Street in Placerville, where the street was lined with old, stately looking homes.
A few yards away from the memorial, colorful children sand toys, a yellow race car, and a plastic dinosaur could be seen strewn in the front yard of a gated home next to a church. The backyard was piled with trash bags and empty boxes.
“RIP Roman, sleep with angels,” was painted on a memorial’s cross in white letters, along with red carnations and candles. In the churchyard, a bouquet of sunflowers had been placed on a child-sized picnic bench.
The Police Department in social media posts Saturday evening said Roman Anthony Lopez had been last seen at his home on Coloma Street that morning and was being sought as a missing person. In an update to the post, the department said Roman had been located but did not indicate whether he was safe.
Then, in a brief press conference Sunday afternoon, police said the boy was found dead after a search of the neighborhood. Officials did not specify where or when the body was found, and the department said it would not be taking questions. But crime scene tape had surrounded the the home next to the church on Sunday, as reported by the local Mountain Democrat newspaper, with Placerville Police and El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office vehicles parked near the church.
Placerville Police Department spokeswoman Commander Kim Nida told The Sacramento Bee that she could only confirm Roman’s body was found sometime Saturday and that no further information was being released Monday.
Placerville police investigate boy’s death
“We don’t have any additional information at this time,” Nida said. “We are continuing with the investigation, contacting witnesses and contacts out there trying to put everything together. We still consider this a suspicious death and are investigating it as that.”
The department did not say whether any arrests have been made. In a Facebook post Monday afternoon, the department said, “We want to assure the public that there is no public safety threat. We are protecting the integrity of the investigation and cannot release specific details.”
A crumpled poster was found on the ground in the quaint Placerville neighborhood, topped with the word “Missing” and with Roman’s name at the bottom and a photo of the boy in between; it asked for anyone with information to call Jordan Piper. The phone number rolled directly to voicemail when called.
An online records search for the phone number turned up a person named Jordan Thomas Piper, and the number included a Michigan area code. A man matching that name, with his residence listed as Grand Blanc, Michigan, could be found on Facebook. His job title on the social media site as of January 2019 was listed as “journeyman lineman” with IBEW Local 876, a union for electrical workers.
Four vehicles, three of them with Michigan license plates and one from Indiana, sat outside the home next to the church on Monday. In addition to two large pickup trucks, one of which was emblazoned with the logo of an Ohio-based electric company, there was a compact car and a black minivan with a child seat in the back.
The minivan and the large pickup truck with Michigan license plates each included the IBEW Local 876 seal on their rear windshields.
Efforts by The Bee to reach Piper were unsuccessful Monday, and no one answered the door at the home on Coloma Street.
In a news release, the Placerville Police Department said the El Dorado County sheriff’s and district attorney offices are assisting in the investigation, and that further updates will be posted to social media when available.
Anyone with information about the death is asked to call 530-642-5210.
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 2:35 PM.
