What we know about the suspicious death of 11-year-old Placerville boy Roman Lopez
As the investigation into the suspicious death of an 11-year-old Placerville boy entered its fourth day, police still have provided little information about the case other than to say “there is no public safety threat” in the area.
Roman Anthony Lopez was reported missing from his family home on Coloma Street on Saturday night. A Facebook post later that night written by the Placerville Police Department said the boy had been found, but provided no other details.
Then, in an abrupt news conference Sunday afternoon at the police station, authorities said the boy was found dead after an extensive search of the neighborhood, and that the death was being investigated as suspicious. Officials didn’t specify where or what time the body was found or whether anyone is in custody in connection with the death.
Fox 40, citing the Placerville Police Department, said seven other children living in the home had been placed in protective custody.
Kira Sutkay, who lives in the Flint, Michigan, area, said Roman’s father and stepmother were close family friends of hers and had until recently lived in Michigan. But Sutkay said she believes the couple had custody of her own three children – ages 7, 2 and 1 – and that they were among the seven minors placed into protective custody.
Speaking with The Sacramento Bee by telephone, Sutkay said she contacted the Placerville Police Department early Monday and was told they would conduct a welfare check at the home on Coloma Street.
She learned Monday evening that her three children were safe, placed into custody of El Dorado County Child Protective Services.
“As far as I know, my kids are in child protective custody, as well as the other children,” Sutkay said Tuesday morning.
Why was Roman Lopez in Placerville?
Sutkay claims she had agreed to an arrangement to have Roman’s guardian, Lindsay Piper, home-school her three young children and take them to doctor’s appointments while both women were still living in Michigan. But in late 2019, Sutkay learned that Piper had moved out of the state and had taken the children with her.
A subsequent review of court documents by The Bee after this story was first published showed Sutkay signed over attorney-at-law rights to Lindsay Piper in July 2019, and a September court hearing granted permission to move the three children to California where Jordan Piper took his job as a journeyman lineman in the state’s fire hardening project.
Sutkay said she has been in a custody battle since then, and did not know that Piper or the children had been in California until a mutual friend told her about Roman’s death over the weekend.
“We were kind of in shock,” Sutkay said. “I instantly texted Lindsay, ‘Is my son alive and OK?’“
She has yet to receive a response, she said.
By early Monday afternoon, a small memorial for the young boy had formed on the damp sidewalk outside the Coloma Street home, and numerous children’s toys were strewn in the front yard.
A crumpled missing person poster found on the ground urged anyone with Roman’s whereabouts to call someone named Jordan Piper. It included a phone number, with a Michigan area code, that went directly to voicemail when called Monday and Tuesday. Public records linked the number to a man named Jordan Thomas Piper, Lindsay Piper’s husband.
Sutkay said Piper was Roman’s father and had worked as a lineman in Michigan. She said she recognized photos of a silver pickup truck outside the home, which she saw in news stories, as Jordan Piper’s work truck.
A Facebook search turned up a profile for Piper, in which his job title as of early 2019 was listed as “journeyman lineman” with IBEW Local 876, a union in Michigan for electrical workers.
No one was home at the Coloma Street house next to the church on Monday, but four vehicles sat outside. Three of them, including the silver pickup truck Sutkay identified as belonging to Piper, had Michigan license plates. The silver truck and a minivan each had the IBEW Local 876 seal emblazoned on their rear windshields.
Numerous attempts by The Bee to reach the Pipers for comment were unsuccessful.
Sutkay said she has been in frequent contact with Placerville and El Dorado County authorities, as well as with local courts in Michigan.
“Hopefully it doesn’t take months for me to get my kids back,” she said. “I hope it’s a quick process.”
Placerville Police ask anyone with information about the suspicious death to call 530-642-5210.
A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the relationship of Roman Lopez’s guardians.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 5:32 PM.
