Officials look for girl, 8; man sought in machete attack
EL RENO — An Amber Alert flashed on road signs above Oklahoma highways Thursday, hours after a missing girl is thought to have cleared the Texas state line with her mother and a man wanted in a machete attack.
Mabel Lopez, 8, and Miria Lopez-Rodriguez, 33, may be with a man police say nearly hacked off the hands of one of the men they shared a house with and critically wounded another.
Arcenio De Jesus, 39, who is originally from Guatemala, is believed to be in a gray 2005 Ford Explorer Sport Trac with Oklahoma license plate 689-LHD. Law officers think De Jesus crossed the Texas border Thursday afternoon.
About 11 p.m. Wednesday, a severely wounded man went to a grocery store across the street from 221 W Elm St., where the attack happened. A store employee called 911.
“I’m here in the Beachler’s parking lot and this guy is like cut up. His face is like open and he’s all bloody and everything. Dripping,” the caller reported.
Luciano Salazar, 44, suffered cuts to his face, head, neck and right hand, according to a police report.
Salazar pointed to the house and told officers, “he is crazy,” the report states.
In the backyard, police found Juan Carlos Rangel-Fiscal, 32, with his hands nearly severed. He also suffered cuts to his face, police said.
A machete was found near Rangel-Fiscal, El Reno police Lt. Van Gillock said.
All five people involved lived in the house on Elm Street. Law officers think De Jesus and Lopez-Rodriguez are married.
Police have no motive for the attack, and had only a bloodied house and assorted Guatemalan identification documents to work with.
Family friend Frank Espinoza was alerted to the incident by police at his door about 8 a.m. Thursday.
Espinoza said he and De Jesus have been friends for years, and they drank together at the house on Elm Street on Saturday. He said Mabel and his daughter play and go to school together.
“The girl just got here to the United States from Guatemala,” he said. “She’s adorable. You fall in love with her every time you see her. My daughter plays with her all the time.”
Espinoza characterized De Jesus and Lopez-Rodriguez as hard workers, and said he’d called mutual friends in Texas who hadn’t seen them Thursday.
Gillock said the Amber Alert was delayed by about 12 hours because investigators had not determined who else was in the house at the time of the attack.
“Our two injured persons are not able to speak,” Gillock said.
Officers visited friends and acquaintances Thursday morning looking for the mother and daughter, and the girl did not show up at school, Gillock said.