SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco Police Department is asking for family members of a homicide victim who was killed in November 1976 to come forward.
The victim at the time was determined to be an male adult, standing 5 feet and 8 inches tall and weighing between 140-150 pounds and between 30-35 years in age. During the original investigation, it was determined the victim was shot in the head at close range.
Authorities obtained fingerprints during the autopsy, but were unable to identify the victim at the time. He remained unidentified and there were no investigative leads. A composite of the victim’s probable likeness was developed by the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.
In October 2023, investigators with the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) began a review of the case. The digital images of the victim’s fingerprints obtained in 1976 were compared to all available national fingerprint records, which was not an available resource at the time of the initial investigation.
The victim was positively identified as Luis Alonso Paredes, originally from El Salvador. SIU Detectives learned that Paredes may have been living or working in the Las Vegas area at the time of his death. Investigators also learned of possible employment within the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy in the San Francisco Bay region nearly a decade before his murder. Investigators have been unable to locate any relatives of Paredes.
Anyone with details regarding the case, or information that would assist investigators in locating Paredes’ family is asked to contact the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Detective Division at 928-753-0753 ext. 4288, and reference DR# 76-5053.
