“She’s Annoying and Ugly” Her Mother Told People- The Story of Kimberly Perez Lopez

“She’s Annoying and Ugly” Her Mother Told People- The Story of Kimberly Perez Lopez

Last December, Chavez was convicted in the murder case after Lopez testified against her to get a lighter sentence. During the trial, investigators said that Kimmy was tortured daily.

Now, the story I have for you today is one about a little girl who was killed, and her killers then went through great lengths to cover up her murder. Unfortunately for them, though, all these efforts would be in vain, as they would end up getting caught in the end. This is the story of Kimberly Lopez.

Early Life and Foster Care

Kimberly Lopez was born on June 19th, 2012, to Myra Chavez and Omar Lopez. She had one older sister and was a happy and silly little girl. Kimberly was said to be a calm and sweet baby; she also loved making silly noises and playing in the sand at the beach.

When Kimberly was born, she tested positive for both methamphetamine and marijuana. So, a few days after her birth, she was taken out of her mother’s care and placed into a foster home. Kimberly would live with a very loving foster family, Karen and Kevin Rogers. She thrived in her new home, and her foster parents adored her. She also had an older brother in this foster home who loved playing with Kimberly.

However, little Kimberly would be reunited with her parents in February of 2013 when she was only eight months old.

The Investigation Begins

Then, one day in July of 2016, someone called the authorities to let them know that they were concerned about Kimberly’s welfare. So, a social worker was sent out to the home located on the 900 block of Denver Place in Oxnard, California, to check on things. But no one would end up answering the door, so Kimberly was not seen at this time. It was said that Kimberly was actually in the care of her father, Omar, and her mother, Myra, was allowed to go and visit her, but only if it was supervised by either Omar or Myra’s mother.

Now, for some unknown reason, child services didn’t check up on the family again until two months later in September. This time, when they asked where Kimberly was, the parents would tell the social worker that they had actually given her to a man who lived in Tijuana, and this man had been like a stepfather to her. But when the authorities tracked down this man and his family in Mexico, he said he did not know the little girl—in fact, he had never even heard her name until now.

Following this, police opened a missing person’s case, and the search for Kimberly began. The Oxnard Police Department set up a task force to try to find Kimberly, and shortly after, the FBI would become involved as well. A $10,000 reward would also end up being offered for any information as to the little girl’s whereabouts.

The Missing Photo and Arrests

The last time that anyone had seen Kimberly was when a social worker from Ventura County Children and Family Services had visited the family’s home back on March 10th, 2015. The thing is, Kimberly’s family had bounced from spot to spot, so it was difficult keeping track of them. Sadly, detectives had a difficult time finding even one picture of Kimberly that was recent, and the one that they would end up using to show the public when she had gone missing was one taken in February of 2015 at a birthday party. She was actually in the background of the image, and police had to enlarge it in order to use it for the missing child flyer.

Then, exactly a month after Kimberly had been reported as missing—on October 7th, 2016—her parents, Omar and Myra, were booked into Ventura County Jail on the charge of contempt of court for failing to tell authorities where their daughter Kimberly was located. So, even though the parents couldn’t tell authorities where their daughter was, they had lied about her being in Mexico, and their stories kept on changing, it still somehow took prosecutors an entire year to charge Omar and Myra with perjury (still no murder charge though!). At this point, they were each held on a $1 million bond.

Authorities believed that not only was Kimberly missing, but she was also dead. Police had K-9 dogs search the family’s Chrysler PT Cruiser for any scent of human remains, and two dogs would end up catching the scent of human remains behind the driver’s side seat.

Uncovering the Truth

When Kimberly’s mother, Myra, was interviewed by detectives, she told them that her daughter had been with her and Omar when they had driven to Tijuana in June of 2015. Myra claimed that they had just left the little girl on the street and then returned back to Oxnard without her. Myra, however, would end up later admitting that when they had driven to Tijuana, Kimberly was not alive. She said that the little girl had fallen off the bed and then had a number of seizures, but she had never taken her to the hospital because she had seemed fine up until the time she stopped breathing.

But this wasn’t the entire truth, and police wouldn’t find out the entire truth until they listened to a taped phone conversation between Omar and Myra. During this conversation, Myra informed Omar that she had told the police that Kimberly had died, but she did not tell them that Kimberly had hit her head while she had been changing her diaper. She instructed Omar to not tell police about the diaper part, but Omar would end up ignoring these instructions and went right to the police to tell them what really happened to Kimberly.

Then, when Myra was re-interviewed after police had this information, she admitted that she had previously lied to police and then went on to tell them what had really happened to her daughter.

What Happened to Kimberly

Apparently, in late June 2015, Myra had returned home one day to find that her daughter Kimberly had soiled her diaper. Angered by this, Myra had yanked her pants down, then pulled her feet out from underneath her. This caused the little girl to flip and then hit her head on the hard floor. Myra said that Kimberly’s head made a loud crunching sound when it hit the floor, but she neither cried nor had any visible injuries, so the mother was unconcerned.

But about a half hour after this had happened, suddenly Kimberly yelled out, “Mommy,” and then she collapsed to the floor. Kimberly then began to seize, went stiff, and struggled to breathe. This seizure lasted about 30 seconds, but afterwards, she was able to talk and walk, so the parents decided they didn’t need to take her to the emergency room.

Only about 45 minutes after that, Kimberly had a second seizure. She again went stiff and struggled to breathe; this seizure lasted even longer—about 90 seconds this time. Myra explained that when the seizure ended, Kimberly’s body felt soft like jello, and she said this time her daughter was unable to walk or talk. But again, Myra and Omar decided against getting any medical attention for their daughter because they were afraid that Myra’s older daughter would be taken away.

Instead, after the second seizure occurred, Kimberly’s parents took her, wrapped her up in a blanket, and just hoped that she would go to sleep. But there was red fluid leaking from her nose, so they knew she wasn’t just going to go to sleep—they knew that she needed medical help. There’s no way they didn’t. Around 10:00 that evening, Kimberly was still breathing on her own, but her body still felt like jello. Regardless, Omar and Myra decided to just go to bed.

At 3:00 a.m., Omar had woken up to check on Kimberly, and when he did, she was not breathing. He additionally noticed that she was stiff and didn’t have a heartbeat. Omar then woke up Myra and told her that their daughter was dead.

The Cover-Up and Disposal of Remains

About an hour after that, at 4:00 in the morning, Omar went over to Myra’s mother’s house—Maria Lopez—and told her that Kimberly had died. (And even though Omar and Maria share the same surname, she is, in fact, Myra’s mother, not his.)

Instead of calling the police, Myra’s mother, Maria, told him that he should go to Mexico to hide her granddaughter’s body, and she then gave him the keys to her PT Cruiser and $300 in cash. Omar had then gone back home, driving his mother-in-law’s PT Cruiser, and he would then put his lifeless child’s body behind the driver’s seat on the floor. Omar then placed clothing all around Kimberly’s body to make it look like he was just carrying a pile of laundry. From there, he and Myra, along with Kimberly’s body, departed to Mexico.

Shortly before they reached the Mexican border, Omar would take Kimberly off the floor of the car and place her into her car seat. He wanted to make it seem like she was just sitting in her car seat sleeping. But in order to get her body back into the car seat—since she had been dead for quite some time at this point—Omar had to apply pressure to her waist and knees to reconfigure her body. At this point, Kimberly’s body was already beginning to smell and decay.

So, the evil parents crossed the Mexican border around 9:00 a.m., and they spent the next 10 to 12 hours looking for a secluded area to bury Kimberly’s body. When they finally found one, they would put her body inside a plastic bag and then dig a shallow grave. They then put the bag inside the grave and covered it up with dirt and plants. But instead of being sad that they had just lost their daughter and buried her, Omar and Myra went to a Tijuana bar and had some drinks. (Unbelievable… or kind of believable, because they had crossed the border again about a week later and returned to their home in Oxnard, then gathered their belongings and went to live with Myra’s mother. And Myra’s mother would tell the couple that they should have burned the car!)

Only months after the parents had buried Kimberly’s body, they would become paranoid that someone would find her. So, in late July, they again took the PT Cruiser and drove it down to Tijuana. There, they retrieved their daughter’s body, put her back into the car, and drove to a home that Myra’s mother, Maria, had helped them to rent in Tijuana. Maria had also helped them to purchase new appliances and furniture for this home.

The reason that Myra and Omar were renting this home in Mexico was actually horrific: the parents were there to dispose of Kimberly’s remains, and they did this by breaking her bones apart with pliers. They then tried to dissolve her remains in a bucket of bleach and water, which they later poured down a sink in the home that they were renting. What couldn’t be poured down the drain they then scattered in various places throughout Tijuana. After this, they would return back to their home in Oxnard, and Myra would thereafter refer to her daughter as “the little [bleep].” She’s one to talk!

Investigators believed that Kimberly had actually been killed on June 22nd, 2015, very shortly after her third birthday.

Arrests and History of Abuse

Then, in January of 2018—nearly 3 years after Kimberly had been killed—prosecutors finally had enough evidence to press charges against Omar and Myra for their daughter’s death. Myra was additionally charged with assault on a child causing death as well as torture, which was based on events that had happened in 2013. Both Myra and Omar’s bail amounts were set at $5 million, and Kimberly’s grandmother, Maria Lopez, was also arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to destroy and conceal evidence; she was held on a $200,000 bail.

What had happened to Kimberly was not just a one-time mistake that her loving mother had made. No, instead, Kimberly had actually been abused by her mother ever since she had been returned back to her in 2013. It was actually within only days of Kimberly being returned to her mother, Myra, that she had begun to abuse her daughter. She would slap her at nearly every meal, telling her she didn’t eat fast enough. She even once pushed Kimberly off the bed because she thought it would be funny.

Then, in July of 2013, when Kimberly had just turned a year old, her father, Omar, began a three-month-long furlough program for work, which meant he would be away from home, leaving Kimberly and her older sister with just their mother, Myra. During this time, Myra would end up relapsing on both methamphetamine and heroin.

While Omar was gone, Myra’s stepsister would stop by to check in on things. One time when she did, she saw Myra drop Kimberly into her crib, then throw a pillow and blanket over the baby’s face. When the stepsister had told Myra to remove the item so that Kimberly didn’t suffocate, Myra said she didn’t care if the child suffocated because she was “annoying and ugly.” Myra’s stepsister also noticed that little Kimberly had bruises and scabs on her face, but her older sister had none.

A few months after this, in late 2013, an anonymous tipster reported to child services that Kimberly had multiple injuries. So, a social worker had gone out to Myra’s house and found that Kimberly was significantly underweight. She also had bruises, abrasions, bite marks, and burn marks all over her body. But the mother would tell the social worker that she didn’t know where her daughter’s injuries had come from—however, “she was always hurting herself” (typical excuse!).

Police would then conduct a physical abuse investigation. At the social worker’s request, a detective would examine Kimberly and take photos of her injuries. During an interview with her mother, Myra, she would just tell police that her daughter fell down a lot. The mother claimed that some of the bruising was from her slipping in the bathtub, others was from a seatbelt pinching the little girl, and then Myra blamed even more bruising on another child hurting Kimberly at the playground.

Regardless of Myra’s excuses, this time Kimberly had been removed from the home and placed back into foster care with her loving foster family. A social worker had also noticed at this time that Kimberly had injured some of her fingers, and when she interviewed Myra and asked what happened, Myra said that Kimberly had just injured them by slamming them in a dresser drawer. However, she had not sought out medical attention because she was afraid of losing her other daughter. Myra also admitted at this time that she loved her other daughter more than she loved Kimberly.

Myra was able to again regain custody of Kimberly and her older sister after taking drug and parenting classes. Now, at the time that Kimberly had been killed, Myra and Omar had been ordered not to live together with the two girls, but the pair had lied to social workers, saying that they had broken up and were not living together—all the while, Myra, Omar, Kimberly, and her older sister had been living together for months.

Daily Torture

When Kimberly was still alive, her mother, Myra, had punished her all the time. Once or twice each day, she would make Kimberly stand in the corner for up to three to four hours at a time; during this, she would make her cover her face with a beanie. She also beat Kimberly with her hands, a shoe, and a spatula, and would make the little girl drink hot sauce. She would hit her in the face and chest at almost every meal and poke the little girl in her eyes. Myra also regularly forced Kimberly to bathe in cold water and would often pull her beanie down over her eyes and run water over her.

Kimberly’s father, Omar, had only once tried to stop the abuse that Myra was inflicting on their daughter. He had tried to stop her from pulling the little girl’s hair one time, but this had only made Myra even more angry, and she had thrown a jar at Kimberly, which hit her in the head. This had caused her to bleed, and the evil mother only laughed. So Omar said that he did not intervene again, because not only was he afraid that Social Services would take away Myra’s older daughter, but he also said that he was afraid that Myra would hurt Kimberly even further.

By April or May of 2015, both Omar and Myra were using methamphetamine regularly. There was also a point in mid-June where Omar had left the house for a little while, and upon his return, he saw that half of Kimberly’s face was bruised.

Trial, Pleas, and Sentences

In April of 2018, Omar agreed to testify against Myra in exchange for a plea deal: his charge of second-degree murder was dropped, and instead he just pled guilty to his other charges of perjury and child endangerment. He was then sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Kimberly’s mother, Myra Chavez, was convicted on second-degree murder, assault on a child causing death, and torture. She was then sentenced to 37 years to life in prison, and she received an additional 5 years for her two counts of perjury.

Before Kimberly’s grandmother, Maria Lopez, could go to trial, she also accepted a plea deal: she would only be sentenced to 180 days in jail for her part in Kimberly’s murder cover-up, which I think is not nearly enough.

Memorial Service and Tributes

A memorial service was held at Oxnard High School on March 16th, 2019, for Kimberly Lopez by her foster family, the Rogerses. Her foster father, Kevin Rogers, said:

“Kimmy loved us and we loved her. We’re here to remember that and to let you all know that she was loved, and to call you to affect change if and where and however you can. That would honor her life more than anything. We’re still having a hard time wrapping our heads around this entire story; we loved her so much and wanted so badly to adopt her.”

The family welcomed anyone affected by the case to join them in remembering Kimberly. Karen Rogers, her foster mother, said in front of mourners:

“I had other names picked out for when, if, we adopted her, but this name was a sweet, shortened name of forgiveness that yet gave her identity as ours and privacy from anyone who may have known a baby by the name of Kimberly was in foster care. This is important now, as we’ve been told that our family were the only ones that ever loved her. It is important now because we are providing a memorial service for her four years after her death. For years she wasn’t noticed as missing, couldn’t be found, and finally was expected deceased from evidence. It has taken years for us to find out that she was not okay, and what really happened to her. Therefore, it is very important now for us to claim her as our own. While no power of law gave us the right to name and raise her while she was alive, I find it ironic now that it is only us that stands for her and gives her the only name by which she was fully loved: Kimmy.

Kimmy was my only baby girl, the last baby I’ll get to mother. Pages cannot hold what that experience was like for me and for her. I like to describe it to people as magic—the bond a mother and a baby have is intense, personal, and sacred. In the first few months that we had her, I became her mommy, and that is simply the most precious and incredible thing in the world to witness and experience. We fell in love with each other. Even now, I can feel her breathing on my face and see her eyes delight when I walk in the room, kneel as she reached for me, and close my eyes and remember how she smiled at me and held my face close to hers so she could reach out and kiss me.”

Conclusion

Well, thank you for listening to Kimberly’s story today. This is sadly yet another story of a child who was wanted and loved by a loving family, but instead was sent back to her evil and hateful parents. And not only did her parents show how little they cared about her while she was alive, but it’s disgusting how awful they treated her body in the way they disposed of her after she was dead. Kimberly’s body has never been found and likely never will, because of the horrible way that her parents decided to get rid of her.