On Friday, August 5, 2005, officers with the Pomona Police Department decided to inspect an abandoned white BMW that had been sitting neglected in the summer heat. The car was parked along a red curb in front of a fire hydrant on Mission Boulevard, directly within sight of the police station itself. It had remained there for several days under triple-digit temperatures and had already received a parking ticket. A passerby eventually contacted authorities after noticing a foul odor drifting from the vehicle. When officers popped the trunk of the car, they made a horrifying discovery: inside lay the badly decomposed body of a young female victim.
Investigators determined that the victim was Yanely Ulloa, a 15-year-old Hispanic female from Santa Ana, California. She had become a mother early in life, leaving behind a 14-month-old daughter in the care of her own mother when she left home to be with her boyfriend. Because she carried no identification and no identifying paperwork was inside the vehicle, she initially remained an unidentified Jane Doe for several days while detectives worked to determine who she was. An official cause of death was not immediately released to the public, but the coroner confirmed the case was a homicide and examiners noted clear signs of a violent struggle inside the car.
Detectives began following the vehicle's trail and ran the license plates on the white BMW, finding that it was registered to Jose Granados of Anaheim, California. Ulloa had entered a relationship with Granados and had run away from home to live with him. According to investigators, she was last seen alive in his company on Saturday, July 30, 2005, in the Anaheim area. When Pomona detectives went to locate and question Granados, they discovered that the home he shared with his family had been abruptly abandoned.
Investigators learned that Jose Granados, his mother Benita Cervantes, and his brother Francisco Granados had all disappeared immediately around the time of the killing. Detectives identified Granados as a person of interest in the homicide. Authorities uncovered evidence indicating that the family had fled across the southern border into Mexico before law enforcement could intercept them. According to investigators, Cervantes had relatives living in the Cuernavaca area of Mexico, where detectives suspect the family sought refuge to avoid questioning and prosecution.
The discovery in Pomona added another tragic chapter to a violent era across Southern California, where hundreds of homicides strained local law enforcement agencies and stretched cold case units thin. Pomona, nestled in the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, frequently contended with regional criminal activity and cross-jurisdictional investigations spanning into neighboring Orange County. Because the vehicle had been parked openly in front of the police department for days before the trunk was opened, detectives had to reconstruct the movements of both the car and its occupants across several cities during the final days of July 2005.
More than two decades later, the murder of Yanely Ulloa remains unsolved. No formal arrests have been announced, and the whereabouts of Jose Granados and his relatives remain unknown. Investigators have continued to appeal to the public for any information that could finally locate the suspects or bring forward witnesses who observed the vehicle being abandoned on Mission Boulevard. Pomona police and regional cold case detectives urge anyone with details about Ulloa's death or the movements of the suspects in Mexico or Southern California to contact law enforcement.
