Alexis Cano, 24, female, was discovered in the early morning of June 26, 2025, inside a home on the 84-000 block of Manila Avenue near the Indio–Coachella border. Deputies reached the residence at about 7:02 a.m. after a report of suspicious circumstances and found her with traumatic injuries; she was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit said the violence unfolded during a domestic disturbance at the home.
Early reports described the location as near the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission and indicated the victim had suffered at least one gunshot wound.
Within days, detectives identified her boyfriend, Mario Morales Jr., 25, of Coachella, as the primary suspect. According to court documents summarized by local reporters, Morales allegedly told family members about the killing in the pre-dawn hours and asked his mother to take him south. He was located at a ranch in Mexico and turned over at the Calexico Port of Entry, where Riverside County deputies arrested him. Prosecutors charged him with murder, as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm, with firearm-use and great-bodily-injury enhancements. He pleaded not guilty on July 1 and was ordered held on $5 million bail ahead of a July 11 court date.
Detectives also arrested his mother, Juana Hernandez De Morales, 55, of Coachella. She was charged as an accessory for aiding in an escape after allegedly driving her son toward the border and later acknowledging her knowledge of the crime to investigators. She pleaded not guilty, and records listed her bail at $1 million as the investigation continued.
Authorities’ public updates and subsequent coverage consistently framed the case as a domestic-violence homicide. Community memorial pages later noted the date and place of her death as Indio, underscoring the shock of the loss and the rapid arrests that followed the initial morning response.
