Murder arrest after missing Hemet teen’s leg is found in California desert

A man who had been named by the family of a missing 17-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of murder after the teen’s leg was found in the California desert.

The leg was discovered just before Christmas in the community of Salton City, and on Feb. 12 the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office announced that DNA testing had revealed it was that of T’Neya Tovar, a Hemet girl who had gone missing.

The next day — Friday, Feb. 13 — a team of officers went to the Salton City home of a 51-year-old man with whom T’Neya had reportedly been acquainted. He was apprehended after jumping a fence in an apparent attempt to flee.

The man’s home is about half a mile from the vacant lot where the leg was found on Dec. 21, in a scattered residential development on the west shore of the Salton Sea.

T’Neya’s mother said she last saw the girl on Dec. 1 and reported her missing after she failed to return from what was thought to be a trip to Palm Springs. A flyer circulated by the family identified the Salton City man as a “person of interest.”

The sheriff’s announcement of the DNA result did not say the girl was believed to be dead, but the charges against the suspect include murder. He was being held without bail at the Imperial County Jail, in El Centro.