Kriti Mehrotra
When the remains of Dioneth Lopez were recovered from the Buckhorn Wilderness area of the Olympic National Forest in Sequim, Washington, on Valentine’s Day 2020, it left the community shaken. The 21-year-old was actually a native of San Pablo, California, as explored in Investigation Discovery’s ‘See No Evil: Nowhere Girl,’ and the way she had been found was brutal, to say the least. She had been killed on federal grounds, which kick-started an intense investigation that led to the uncovering of a web of betrayal and lies before her assailant was brought to justice.
Dioneth Lopez Was Fatally Attacked in a National Forest
At the age of 21, Dioneth Lopez was reportedly leading a happy life in San Pablo, California, where she was surrounded by a support system that always pushed her to be her best self. From what we can tell, the young woman was still finding her path in this world while trying to establish herself as a strong, independent individual, which led her to build many connections, too. Therefore, when she flew to Seattle, Washington, on February 10, 2020, it was to meet not only a man she was allegedly sexually involved with but also some friends she wanted to go on a hike with.
However, according to records, Dioneth went off the radar not long after she landed in Seattle, which worried everyone close to her, but it wasn’t until February 15, 2020, that a friend officially reported her missing. By this point, though, her remains had already been found by a passerby along the logging road of Forest Road 28-280 in the Buckhorn Wilderness area of the Olympic National Forest. The passerby immediately contacted the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, reporting that they saw a woman lying at the end of the road who seemed unconscious and didn’t respond when they called out to her.
When officials arrived at the scene, they immediately recognized that the victim was dead owing to the clear signs of trauma across her body, but they didn’t know who she was since she had no identification on her. It took a while for them to identify her as Dioneth, but they were able to quickly ascertain that she had been killed owing to the fact that a folding knife, a box cutter, and a broken tequila bottle, all with traces of blood, were found near her remains. Her autopsy by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed she had died of blunt force trauma and multiple lacerations, with wounds all across her arms, head, neck, as well as torso.
Dioneth Lopez’s Killer Was Identified and Arrested Within Days
Because of the way the victim’s remains were discovered, officials immediately began an investigation and were soon able to positively identify her as 21-year-old Dioneth Lopez. They then began retracing her steps, only to find that she had landed in Washington as planned on February 10 and had been picked up from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport by an unidentified man. He subsequently drove her to Sequim, where she was meeting some friends for a pre-planned hiking trip that she was reportedly extremely excited about.
However, that never panned out as Dioneth and the strange man ended up spending around 7 hours at the Longhouse Market near 7 Cedars Casino, most of which was in his vehicle. The Red Chevy Silverado pickup truck was also captured on surveillance footage from a local convenience store when the duo visited, which led authorities to identify the man as Alejandro Aguilera Rojas. As per police records, Dioneth and Alejandro were allegedly having an affair – we assert “affair” because he was a married man with a family of his own.
Once Dioneth and Alejandro were both identified, officials obtained their cell phone records, which further pointed towards the nature of their relationship and showed their movements. According to court documents, both their phones were together from the moment she landed in Washington and then moved towards the area of the murder near Olympic National Forest. Then, on February 11, both phones traveled back to Alejandro’s residence, which officials ascertained was after Dioneth had been killed and left behind. He was thus arrested 5 days after the remains were first recovered.
Alejandro Rojas is Currently Serving Time in a Federal Facility
Alejandro was formally arrested on the charge of murder on February 19, 2020, following which he essentially confessed to his crimes to local authorities. He claimed that he lost his cool on Dioneth after she allegedly not only threatened to kill his wife and children but also attempted to stab him over concerns of their relationship. He tried to assert that he struck her with a tequila bottle in self-defense before leaving her remains in the woods, but the fact that she had severe head trauma and multiple lacerations painted a different story regarding his intentions.
Alejandro pleaded guilty to the charge of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement in a Clallam County Superior Court on March 6 of the same year. However, the charge was dismissed without prejudice in April, following which he was charged on the same count of second-degree murder in federal court because the murder occurred on federal land. He initially pleaded not guilty but ended up changing it in December 2021, shortly before his trial was to commence. As a result, on May 16, 2022, he was sentenced to 16¾ years (200 months) in prison. So, today, at the age of 28, he remains incarcerated in a federal correctional facility.
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