Hemet police interviewing “person of interest” in missing teens case

The individual, who was not identified, was brought in over the holiday weekend and he is being interviewed at this time.


Monday, November 30, 2009
San Diego: Seventeen-year-old Jose Campos is one of two Hemet teens still missing. (Photo MySpace)

Seventeen-year-old Jose Campos is one of two Hemet teens still missing. (Photo MySpace)

Hemet police investigators are interviewing someone they describe as a “person of interest” as they attempt to solve the case of two missing teenagers, according to Sgt. Rob Webb.

The individual, who was not identified, was brought in over the holiday weekend and he is being interviewed at this time, Webb said in a news release. No other information about the person is being released at this time, he said, “in an effort to avoid compromising the investigation.”

He said investigators are still asking for the public’s help in finding Jose Campos and Adrian Rios, both 17, who have been missing for more than two weeks. Campos’ girlfriend, Felicia Sharpe, 17, was initially believed to have been missing, too, but she turned up Wednesday. Police have not commented on what she may have told them about the boys.

A spokesman said last week she told investigators she was with her mother during the period she was thought to be missing and did not tell her father because she feared he would be angry. The girl’s parents are estranged.

Some neighborhoods have said a Nov. 15 bonfire at the recently vacated house in the 1400 block of Bluejay Way emitted a powerful stench. Campos had lived in the home for the past two months with his parents, but neighbors told broadcast outlets the home had been vacant for about a week before the night of the bonfire. The human remains found at the home were described as fragments and mostly charred.

“The remains could be one or both of them, or it could be somebody else entirely,” Hemet police Sgt. James Waters said over the weekend.

San Diego: Adrian Rios, 17, is also reported missing. (Photo MySpace)

Adrian Rios, 17, is also reported missing. (Photo MySpace)

The remains — still listed as John/Jane Doe by the coroner’s office — were found Nov. 18 in shallow graves in the back yard of the house.

Identifying burned remains can take weeks, a coroner’s investigator said in a telephone interview .

No arrests have been made in the case, and authorities indicated the parents of the missing teens were cooperating with the investigation.

Police are asking anyone with information to call Sgt. David Quinn at 951-765-2400.

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