Cristopher Francisco Lopez was 23 years old when he died on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in Pasadena. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma on the westbound 134 Freeway at the Orange Grove Boulevard overpass. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a California Highway Patrol case, handled by the CHP's Altadena office.
An obituary posted online says that Cristopher Francisco Lopez was born on December 10, 1994, in Los Angeles. The coroner's records describe him as a Latino man.
The circumstances of his death set it apart from most cases in the Homicide Report. A news post shared on social media by ABC4 described "the death of Cristopher Lopez, who was in the car with his family when a 30-pound boulder came crashing through the windshield while traveling westbound." The location in the coroner's records, on the westbound freeway at an overpass, fits that account, which suggests that the rock was dropped or thrown from the bridge above onto the traffic below.
One week after his death, on March 20, 2018, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took up a motion titled "Reward Offer in the Investigation of Murder Victim Cristopher Lopez." The motion began: "On Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at approximately 8:55 p.m." County reward offers are made when investigators have not identified who is responsible and hope that money will encourage a witness to come forward. The amount of the reward and the rest of the motion's text were not available for this story.
A young man riding with his family on a weeknight evening had no reason to expect danger from above. Whoever sent the rock onto the freeway may not have known whom it would strike, but the result was the death of a 23-year-old in front of the people closest to him.
Pasadena is a city of about 135,000 people in the San Gabriel Valley, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, known worldwide for the Rose Bowl and the Tournament of Roses Parade. Orange Grove Boulevard is one of its best-known streets, lined with grand old homes, and it is where the Rose Parade begins each New Year's Day. The 134 Freeway, also called the Ventura Freeway, runs east and west through the city, where it meets the 210 Freeway, and streets such as Orange Grove cross over it on bridges. Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
A rock of that size would have had to be carried or lifted onto the overpass, and someone may have seen a person or a group on or near the bridge that evening, or heard someone talk about it afterward.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Cristopher Francisco Lopez could be found in news archives or public records. More than seven years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was on or near the Orange Grove Boulevard overpass of the 134 Freeway in Pasadena on the evening of March 13, 2018, may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the California Highway Patrol, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
