After 12 years, investigators in California have identified and arrested a suspect in a murder police are calling “heinous” and “especially disturbing.”
On Nov. 13, 2014, 55-year-old Labh Nigah was stabbed to death in Sierra Linda Park. Nigah had just walked his son to the adjacent elementary school before being attacked in broad daylight.
Witnesses to Nigah’s murder included people in the park, teachers and school staff. Grade school students who were in the school yard also witnessed it.
“This was a truly heinous crime,” said Oxnard Police Chief Jason Benites. “It was one of those cases seasoned veteran homicide detectives found to be especially disturbing.”
When police arrived on scene, they found Nigah near a walking path in the park with multiple stab wounds to the torso. A lengthy blood train ran west from the crime scene.
The killing occurred in a public park adjacent to the school while it was in session and was witnessed by individuals in the park as well as nearby school staff and students. Despite lifesaving efforts, Nigah was pronounced deceased at the scene.
A significant amount of forensic evidence, including DNA, was collected at the scene. In the aftermath, police interviewed numerous people, released composite sketches, and asked the public for help, but no leads were produced. A DNA profile was uploaded into CODIS at the time, but there were no matches and the case went cold.
With technology rapidly advancing, investigators searched for new leads in recent years. Ultimately, the FBI’s Genealogy Task Force and Family Tree Analysis Program lead to the relative of a suspect in Houston, and later a sibling of that same man still located in Oxnard.
In the lab, scientists combined evidence from the park’s walking path into a DNA profile matching the suspect. They were even able to extract a sufficient sample from where the alleged stabbing took place.
“None of this would have been possible without Ventura County Forensic Scientists Krista Kanka. She responded to the crime scene back in 2014, completed the DNA profile testing, and has worked closely with detectives on this case ever since,” said Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko.
On April 2, 2026, detectives arrested suspect Jose Antonio Jimenez, 32, and charged him with murder for the 2014 killing of Labh Nigah. At then time of arrest, Jimenez was still living in Oxnard.
Nasarenko praised the work detectives and forensic scientists have done over the past 11.5 years to bring this brutal case to a close.
“Advances in DNA technology are only meaningful years later when evidence is properly located and preserved at the crime scene for future testing,” said Nasarenko.
There is no evidence Jimenez knew Nigah, an immigrant and devoted father of three who often worked multiple shifts at the local 7-11 to prioritize his children’s education and future.
“This was an ambush and a brutal crime committed in broad daylight against a completely unsuspecting victim,” said Nasarenko.
Nigah’s now-adult daughters are a lawyer and a scientist on the East Coast.