OKLAHOMA CITY – A woman with connections to the Sooner State is found murdered in California.
Detectives in southern California are trying to figure out who killed a young woman from Oklahoma after she was found dead at a recycling center in Anaheim, Calif. this past weekend.
Police have identified the victim as 21-year-old Jarrae Estepp.
Workers at the plant say they discovered Estepp’s naked body, face down on a conveyor belt while sorting through trash this weekend.
“We believe she was killed somewhere in southern California area,” said Lt. Tim Schmidt, with the Anaheim Police Department. “She was put into a dumpster or into a trash bin and the trash picked up these bins into a truck and brought it to these sites.”
“It’s just horrific,” said Lori Basey, president for No Boundaries International. “But we know it doesn’t have to end that way.”
Estepp’s is a young face that many people at the No Boundaries International group have seen before.
Basey said, “In 2012, it was just on a routine occurrence when she was in this area that we would run into her.”
The NBI’s street outreach team met Estepp on S. Robinson, an area commonly known for prostitution.
“Numerous times our street outreach team were standing with her, talking to her, praying with her as she was out there,” said Basey. “During that particular time in 2012, she was pregnant.”
Footage captured by Brian Bates, the founder of “John TV,” shows the then 19-year-old talking with volunteers and even hugging when they said goodbye.
Basey said, “We had heard she was in different states and cities in Oklahoma City and then heard, of course, the tragic thing about how she was found dead.”
Detectives said Estepp’s son is safe and with family in Oklahoma.
Officials say Estepp has family in Modesto, Calif. and Elk City, Okla.
A candlelight and prayer vigil is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday night at the No Boundaries office on Britton Rd.
