PLACERVILLE, CA – Nearly three years after the tragic death of 11-year-old Roman Lopez, his father, Jordan Piper, has entered a guilty plea for the murder, marking a somber conclusion to a deeply troubling case. The El Dorado County District Attorney confirmed that Jordan Piper pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with his son Roman Lopez’s demise. The heartbreaking incident unfolded in January 2020 when young Roman was discovered dead in a storage bin shortly after being reported missing. His untimely death raised immediate suspicion among authorities.
However, it wasn’t until February 2021 that Jordan Piper and Lindsay Piper, Roman’s stepmother, were apprehended. Dan Maciel of the Placerville Police Department, who spearheaded the investigation, emphasized that their standard protocol when a child is reported missing involves searching the home. The autopsy revealed no apparent signs of trauma, but it disclosed that Roman had been “severely malnourished and dehydrated” at the time of his passing.
In a separate but disturbing development, this case took an even darker turn as Lindsay Piper pleaded no contest to her involvement in Lopez’s death in May 2022. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
Jordan’s sentencing follows recent convictions on child exploitation charges, stemming from the discovery of over 400 explicit photos of an underage girl on his phone during the Lopez investigation. Additionally, inappropriate text messages to the girl were uncovered. Authorities also uncovered a hidden GoPro camera in a rental home’s bathroom in Tuolumne County, containing primarily videos of the girl bathing. Jordan entered a guilty plea in March 2023 for sexually exploiting the child.
The district attorney has disclosed that Jordan Piper will be sentenced on November 21 for the murder of his son Roman Lopez. At the time of Roman’s tragic death, the exploited girl was residing in Placerville with the Pipers, alongside seven other children aged 1 to 17 years old. Remarkably, the family had only lived in Placerville for slightly over two months before the heart-wrenching incident unfolded.