A preschool teacher who worked on the campus of Stanford University was arrested for murder Wednesday. Diana Ornelas, 22, taught at the Children’s Center of the Stanford Community, a childcare center on campus, Fox News reported.
The university went to pains to distance itself from the murder and to reassure its population that neither those on the campus nor children specifically were impacted by the arrest.
Administrators at the preschool informed parents that “The arrest happened at naptime, and outside of the perimeter of the CCSC campus. Children were not present when this occurred, and it did not disrupt operations.”
Spokesperson Luisa Rapport informed readers of student newspaper The Stanford Daily that Ornelas, who is being held without bail, is not continuing to work on the campus of the academically elite university.
Authorities said in a statement that they believed the motive was “of a personal nature.” Ornelas and her alleged accomplice, Dennis Novoa, 27, allegedly knew the victim, 24-year-old Oliver Waterfall.
Ornelas, who is described as a “Santa Cruz resident,” is accused of fatally shooting Waterfall with Novoa in Santa Cruz County. His body was found on a hillside off of Highway 9. Waterfall had been dead for almost a month before his body was found April 11, police said.
The sheriff’s department said the two arrests were the result of weeks of investigating and interviewing. “Over the past two weeks, detectives have been conducting interviews and reviewing surveillance footage related to the case,” the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office continues actively investigating the case and encourages anyone with information related to the incident to call 831-454-7702.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.