Rosalba Reynosa, a 27-year-old woman whose official records list her race as “Other,” was a young mother making a life for herself and her children in a modest home in southwest Oklahoma City. On the morning of January 31, 2014, that home became the scene of a tragedy when one of her children discovered her lifeless inside. Investigators would later determine that she had been killed the previous day, January 30, 2014, turning what had been an ordinary weeknight into the moment her
family’s world changed forever.
When police arrived, they found few signs of forced entry, a detail that immediately suggested Rosalba had likely known her killer. The investigation quickly centered on her ex-boyfriend, 23-year-old Gustavo Bernal Lopez, with whom she had recently ended a turbulent relationship. According to court records and police affidavits, the couple had broken up roughly two weeks before the homicide, adding a bitter emotional context to the crime. Detectives also uncovered that just a few months earlier, in November, officers had stopped the pair together during a routine traffic stop; she was arrested for driving without a license, and Lopez was taken into custody on outstanding warrants, showing that their lives had already intersected with law enforcement before her death. At the murder scene, investigators recovered physical evidence bearing a fingerprint that they said matched Lopez, a crucial piece tying him to the home during the time frame of the killing.
The most chilling details emerged when police interviewed Lopez’s then-current girlfriend. According to the arrest warrant affidavit, she told detectives that Lopez called her after the murder, saying he was already in Mexico and asking her to keep an eye on the news. During that call, she said, he admitted that he and Rosalba had argued over money and that he killed her during that confrontation. He allegedly added that Rosalba’s children were in their bedrooms, asleep, while the violence unfolded in another part of the house, an admission that horrified neighbors who later learned how close the children had been to the crime. Residents on the street, like neighbor Shelby Parton, described their shock that a young mother had been slain just a few doors away and expressed disbelief that the man they had seen around the neighborhood was now accused of such a crime.
Based on the fingerprint evidence, the breakup timeline, and the girlfriend’s statements, Oklahoma City police obtained an arrest warrant for Gustavo Bernal Lopez on a murder charge. By the time the warrant was filed, however, Lopez had already vanished. Authorities announced that he was believed to have fled the country and was likely hiding in Mexico, placing them in a difficult position as they tried to pursue a fugitive beyond U.S. borders. Crime Solvers-style case summaries and nonprofit investigative platforms later echoed that description, noting that he remained the primary suspect in Rosalba’s killing and emphasizing that he had reportedly fled soon after the crime.
Years passed, but the case did not close. Nonprofit fugitive-tracking groups such as Solve the Case now host dedicated pages for Lopez, listing him under various name combinations and describing him as wanted for the homicide of his ex-girlfriend, 27-year-old Rosalba Reynosa-Valdez. They note that the case status remains open and that a reward of up to $1,000 is available through Oklahoma City Crime Stoppers for information leading to his capture. Despite the issuance of the arrest warrant and periodic media reminders of the case, no public records indicate that Lopez has ever been arrested for Rosalba’s murder; he is still described as a fugitive, and no other suspects have been publicly named. For Rosalba’s children, relatives, and neighbors, the story remains one of loss without a final measure of justice, defined by a crime that shattered a family home and a suspect who, at least on paper, has never come back to face what investigators say he did.
