Denice Roberts, a 53-year-old Black woman, was found dead on October 13, 2010, in her home on the 12600 block of South Hoover Street in the Harbor Gateway neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her husband discovered her body around 3:30 p.m. According to the Los Angeles County coroner's office, she was found bound and gagged, with bruising on her neck, indicating she had been strangled.
Due to the sensitive nature of the case, a security hold was placed on the investigation, limiting the release of further details at the time.
Subsequent investigations linked her death to John Wesley Ewell, a 53-year-old Black man residing just two houses away from Roberts. Ewell was arrested on October 23, 2010, after attempting to use a stolen ATM card from another victim. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, including the killing of Denice Roberts, as part of a series of home invasion robberies and murders that occurred over a two-month span. In May 2019, Ewell accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to all four murders in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table. He was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole and is currently incarcerated at Valley State Prison.
