On the afternoon of July 15th, 2010, 17-year-old Norma Lopez left school, excited to meet up with her friends.

She took her usual route that she took every other time, cutting across an open field,

not realizing that taking that route that day would ultimately cost her her life. Hello, hi, welcome to 10 minute murder, brief.

Hello, hi, welcome to 10-Minute Murder, brief and bingeable true crime.

I am Joe, that is my name, I'm the host, and thank you for joining today.

And since you're here, you might as well listen to a short story about murder.

If this is your first time downloading and listening to 10-minute murder, welcome. Wherever

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murder on social media. There's also a link in the episode notes to visit the merch store

if you're interested in stickers and t-shirts and stuff like that. Now that I have rattled on

enough, let's talk about today's story. It's about Norma Lopez, whose life was cut short one summer

afternoon. It took a year

for her killer to be identified and almost a decade for him to be finally punished.

It was 2010, and Norma Lopez, a 17-year-old teenager from Marino Valley, California, had a bright future ahead of her.

She was known for waist-length hair, big brown eyes, and always flashing a vibrant smile.

She loved putting on makeup, and she never left home without trying to look better than her sisters.

She was set to graduate from high school the following year and planned to study fashion design

in college, with the hopes that it would allow her to achieve her dreams of becoming a model.

The year before her graduation, Norma decided to sign up for an advanced biology class

at Valley View High School.

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