into place; drug
overdose a possibility
Body ID’d; cause of death a mystery
Pieces begin to fall
into place; drug
overdose a possibility
By elaine van develde
Staff Writer
Authorities now know her name. Yet the last moments of the life of 15-year-old Fatima Delourdes Cordobos Lopez remain a mystery.
The girl, who remained unidentified until last week, was found dead, unclothed, encased in mud and partially decomposed in an 8-to-10-inch-deep shallow grave on a Green Grove Road construction site in Tinton Falls on Nov. 18 — three days before her 16th birthday.
Before identification, a State Police forensic anthropologist’s report had some bits of her story that were put together for a composite drawing and flyer.
Her hair showed signs of red highlighting that had grown out. She had a slight overbite. She wore red toenail polish, three piercings in each ear with no earrings and a gold insignia ring bearing a silver script "F" initial.
Authorities said last week that the ring would be key in identifying the girl, and they were right.
Tinton Falls Police and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office circulated flyers last week with a composite of the teen and a picture of the ring.
Shortly after the information was circulated, a man who is now known as Fatima’s brother, Hector Lopez of Belmar, came forward.
Thinking the ring may have been his sister’s, Hector Lopez and other unidentified family members made a trip to the Tinton Falls Police Department, police records said.
The facts fit together, so the traces of fingerprints that were taken from the as-yet-unidentified corpse were compared to prints on Fatima’s records of her immigration from Nicaragua. The fingerprint records provided a match.
After saying last week that identifying the body would be the first major step toward solving the crime, Tinton Falls and county authorities have now started to put the what, why and how together with the who and where elements of the case to get a whole picture.
That picture is not yet clear. While the cause of death is still not known, authorities are treating it as a homicide investigation.
The fact that the girl could not have buried herself lends itself to foul play of some sort, Tinton Falls police Capt. David Trevena said.
No authority has mentioned a sign of struggle, according the county medical examiner’s report.
Since no distinguishing gunshot or stab wounds were found on Fatima’s body, a drug overdose has been considered a possible cause of death, First Assistant County Prosecutor Honecker had said.
Results of toxicology reports have not come in. They take at least four weeks to process, Honecker had said.
Authorities know only a few facts about the teen’s life prior to her death and burial in that shallow grave, which occurred sometime in late October or early November.
Police and the Prosecutor’s Office will only say that before her death, Fatima had been living in an apartment on Sixth Avenue in Asbury Park with a 22-year-old female roommate. No one would identify the roommate.
Other than her most recent living arrangements, authorities only knew that she was not enrolled in school and was purportedly working.
She was described by police as a drifter with no permanent address.