By Tori Richards
October 31, 2007
EL MONTE, Calif. (Crime Library) —Before ethnic actresses and supermodels became mainstream in the late 1990s, people like Maria Bruno had a tough time getting work because they didn't fall into the California Girl mold made famous by Christie Brinkley and Cindy Crawford. A striking brunette from El Salvador with long dark hair and large eyes, Maria was too petite to be a runway model, so she dreamed of hitting it big as a print model or as an actress. But Hollywood agents said her accent was a problem, and didn't want to book her until she lost it. So she worked in the mid-1990s without an agent, getting layouts in several beauty magazines.
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| Maria with Children |
In 2005, after getting married and having four children, Maria, 32, was ready to resurrect her modeling career and follow in the footsteps of Latina idols like Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek. Yet fate can be very cruel. Maria would become famous all right, but it was as case number 137-3199-011 with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department — one of 445 murders that happened in Los Angeles County in 2005. Hers had the distinction of being committed by a Jack the Ripper-style killer who a detective says had likely killed several times before, judging by the way he inflicted the wounds on Maria's body.
When Maria died, she had just separated from her husband Irving, moved into a new apartment and was thinking of going a different direction in her life. She had been with Irving since she was 21 years old and living at home with her mother, and had never had the chance to be out on her own, making her way. In 2005, she just wanted to go out and have fun, to do all the things she never got to do as a young adult.
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