The investigation into the theft of the Apr. 21 issue of the Highlander Newspaper has been suspended pending further information, Lt. John Freese of UCPD said. ASUCR President Roxanna Sanchez was questioned along with four other women about the Apr. 21 early-morning theft, according to a police report.
Sanchez gave different accounts to a senate audience and to police, telling police that she was bowling that night, and telling an audience at an emergency senate meeting first that she was visiting family in Orange County and then saying that she was in Riverside with her friend and ASUCR intern Maria Belen Farinas. Sanchez ignored repeated requests for an interview made over the course of several weeks.
After the final ASUCR meeting last Thursday, she wrote the following statement: "I look forward to hearing any news from UCPD in regards to this issue."
According to the police report, Sanchez, Farinas, and three other women from the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority were questioned between April 30 and May 4. The five of them generally denied knowing that the newspapers were stolen, aside from rumors.
On Monday, Apr. 20, at 7 p.m., the report said that they had their weekly Kappa Kappa Gamma meeting at the house where Farinas, Sanchez, and one of the other women reside. Sanchez and Farinas were not present at the house, but met up with the rest of the women afterwards, according to the report. At 10:56 p.m., the five of them went to Brunswick Bowl in Moreno Valley, which was confirmed by the bowling alley's surveillance video.
The five of them left around midnight. Two of them said they then left the house, while another said she went straight to bed.
On Facebook.com, at 2:04 a.m. the morning of the theft, one of the women who claimed to have left the house right after they returned from bowling wrote on Sanchez's wall, "Bowling = fun. After bowling activity = even better haha [heart] you." The post has since been deleted.
Sanchez and Farinas said that they went on Myspace.com, studied, and went to bed.
The Myspace.com profile that was linked from Sanchez's Facebook page the morning of the theft identified her profile as myspace.com/killerroxy. As of May 31, 2009 at press time, the profile said it had not been logged into since Jul. 18, 2008.
The police included in their report information about the drive time, noting that the drive from the bowling alley back to their house takes 15 minutes. The drive from the address to the UCR campus also takes about 15 minutes.
At an emergency senate meeting held April 23, 2009, Sanchez did not mention the bowling and at first said she was "back home" when the newspapers were stolen.
"I'd expected this from the students but let me just tell you I did not do this," Sanchez said.
She first claimed that she had been visiting her family, due to the recent death of her aunt.
"I've been back home a lot because my aunt just passed away," Sanchez said.
But minutes later, Sanchez said that she was in her home in Riverside with Farinas at approximately 9:00 p.m. on the evening of Monday, Apr. 20.
Highlander Union Building (HUB) Director Todd Wingate informed police that surveillance captured images of two women stealing newspapers at the HUB distribution rack.
In the video, dated 12:42 am, the women were wearing shorts, and one had a long ponytail. The surveillance shows them grabbing armloads of newspapers, and then running away. Police were not able to positively identify the individuals.
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