A North County man accused of killing his girlfriend, who has been missing for nearly three years, has pleaded not guilty to her murder.
Hugo Lionel Hernandez, 44, of Oceanside, was arrested last month in San Diego County following a months-long Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the death of Katherine Mary Neitzke, 33, of Hemet.
He was arraigned Thursday before Riverside Superior Court Judge Sean Crandell. He set a court date for May 13 and left the defendant’s bail set at $1 million.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Brosche, Neitzke disappeared from a Mapes Road residence in the unincorporated community of Romoland, between Menifee and Perris, on July 26, 2019.
Initially, detectives treated the case as a missing-person investigation, but by the summer of 2021, they turned their attention to Hernandez, who became a homicide suspect, Brosche said.
He said that after investigators uncovered additional evidence, which wasn’t disclosed, and presented their case to the District Attorney’s Office, a criminal complaint was filed alleging that Hernandez murdered Neitzke.
Detectives believe her body may have been dumped somewhere along the Ortega (74) Highway, in southwest Riverside County. Neither police nor prosecutors have revealed a suspected motive or details about how Hernandez may have killed the victim.
A second person, Avena Edilberto, is charged as an accessory after the fact, but she has not been taken into custody. There’s an active warrant for her arrest.
Hernandez is being held at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside. Neither Hernandez nor Edilberto have documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
– City News Service
