California hubby, wife charged in 2nd wife’s murder

VISALIA, Calif.—A husband and wife who married in Mexico in 2007 have been charged with murdering another woman who, the man married in California, so the man could get legal permission to stay in the United States, authorities said on Wednesday.

Francisco Valdivia, 37, and Rosalina Lopez, 39, were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the June 9 disappearance of Cecelia Bravo.

The suspects lived in the small central California city of Visalia, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said.

The body of Bravo has not been found but sheriff’s spokeswoman Teresa Douglass said authorities have evidence Valdivia and Lopez threatened Bravo and that detectives have “significant digital forensic evidence” she would not describe implicating the couple.

Valdivia and Lopez are both from Mexico and they married there before coming to the US, the sheriff said.

Valdivia later married the California-born Bravo in an attempt to gain legal residence, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux told the Sacramento Bee.

“He used Cecilia in a business relationship to gain himself legal residence,” Boudreaux said.

Bravo was last seen at the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California, about a half hour drive from Visalia in California’s agricultural heartland. Boudreaux said the motive for the killing was linked to “the relationship of these three people,” but declined provide more specifics.