Police said the killing happened Wednesday night, and the suspect was taken into custody after an overnight search that briefly disrupted a nearby school.
SYLMAR, CA — A 35-year-old woman was fatally stabbed at her home in Sylmar on Wednesday night, and police arrested her boyfriend Thursday morning after an hourslong search that stretched into a nearby neighborhood and briefly affected a local elementary school.
Los Angeles police said the killing happened at the apartment the couple shared in the 13000 block of Dronfield Avenue. The case quickly became both a homicide investigation and a manhunt as officers searched for the suspect overnight. By Thursday morning, the arrest had brought some immediate relief to residents and school families, but major questions remained, including what led to the attack and what evidence detectives will present as the case moves toward court.
Police said officers from the Mission Division were sent to the home shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday after a report of an assault with a deadly weapon. When they arrived, they found Nancy De La Torre, 35, inside the apartment with multiple stab wounds, according to police accounts carried by local news outlets. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Witnesses at the scene told officers they saw a man running away after the stabbing, and police soon identified the woman’s boyfriend as the person they were seeking. Television station ABC7 reported that police described him early Thursday as the victim’s 35-year-old boyfriend, while later reports from NBC Los Angeles and MyNewsLA identified the suspect as Sergio Jimenez, 31. A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson told ABC7 shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday that a suspect had been taken into custody in connection with the killing.
As detectives worked through the night, officers widened their search away from the apartment complex and into another part of Sylmar. Authorities said officers moved into the area of Hubbard and Eighth Street at about 5 a.m. Thursday, roughly four miles from the homicide scene, and set up a perimeter while they searched for the suspect. By about 10 a.m., police said, Jimenez had been taken into custody there. NBC Los Angeles and MyNewsLA reported that he was booked on suspicion of murder and that bail was set at $2 million. Police have said De La Torre and Jimenez were in a cohabiting relationship and called the case an incident of domestic violence. Investigators have not publicly explained what started the violence, whether anyone else was inside the apartment at the time, or what physical evidence they recovered beyond the victim’s stab wounds.
The search had effects beyond the crime scene. Because of the police activity near the perimeter, students and staff from Gridley-Montanez Dual Language Academy were temporarily moved to Maclay Middle School, according to statements cited by local media. The school later reopened after the arrest. In a statement reported by ABC7, the Los Angeles Unified School District said school police would remain on campus and provide directed patrols in the neighborhood, and it said mental health support would be available for affected students. The episode turned a homicide investigation into a highly visible public event for nearby families, with patrol cars, officers on foot and an ambulance drawing attention from residents who were starting their day. That made the case feel broader than a single apartment crime scene, especially for parents who had to track a school relocation while police looked for a homicide suspect nearby.
Neighbors and parents described a scene of confusion and fear as the investigation unfolded. ABC7 quoted a woman identified only as Destiny, the mother of a Gridley student, saying, “This shouldn’t be happening. It sucks for the community.” She added that there were officers throughout the area and that “the ambulance came and it was just chaos.” Those remarks captured the shock around a killing that police say happened inside a home, then spilled into the neighborhood as the suspect fled and officers tried to track him down. Even with an arrest, the public picture remains incomplete. Police have not released a detailed account of the moments before the stabbing, whether there had been prior calls for service at the apartment, or whether prosecutors will file a murder case immediately or seek added allegations tied to domestic violence. Authorities also had not publicly released a fuller narrative from detectives by late Thursday.
The procedural path from here is more familiar, even if the facts are still developing. Police said Jimenez was booked on suspicion of murder, which means detectives have presented enough evidence for an arrest while they continue building the case. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will decide what charges to file after reviewing the investigation. That review can include witness statements, forensic evidence from the apartment, any surveillance footage from the area, body camera or radio records, and the suspect’s own statements, if any were made after his arrest. Detectives also asked for tips from the public, directing anyone with information to the department’s Valley Bureau homicide investigators or to Crime Stoppers. That request suggests investigators are still trying to fill in parts of the timeline, including the suspect’s route after he left the apartment and whether anyone may have seen or recorded him between the killing and his arrest Thursday morning.
For now, the case stands at the point where a public emergency has shifted into a court-bound homicide file. A woman is dead, a suspect is in custody, and a neighborhood in the northeast San Fernando Valley is trying to make sense of how a domestic violence case turned into an overnight search that reached a school campus. The next key steps are expected to be the formal filing decision, the public release of any additional police details and a first court appearance if prosecutors move ahead with a murder charge.
Author note: Last updated April 10, 2026.