Burbank police investigate woman found dead in home

BURBANK, Calif (FOX 11 / CNS) - A 49-year-old man arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing a woman whose body was found in his Burbank home was freed today, and another man was jailed instead.

Brian Thomas Lowe gave conflicting statements when he was interviewed Monday afternoon by detectives and those misstatements led to his arrest for the murder of this unidentified 35-year-old woman, Burbank police Officer Joshua Kendrick said.

However, early this morning Burbank detectives located Timothy Aguilar Andrade of Hesperia, a person of interest who provided information that cleared
Lowe. Burbank police subsequently arrested the 28-year-old Andrade and booked him for the stabbing death of the woman, Kendrick said.

The victim's name was withheld pending notification of next of kin. "Andrade was contacted by the sheriff's department yesterday," Kendrick told City News Service. According to county jail records, Andrade was picked up by deputies from the sheriff's East Los Angeles Station around 2 p.m. and booked on an
unspecified misdemeanor charge.

Andrade was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail and scheduled to go to court today in Long Beach for arraignment on that charge. Instead, Kendrick told City News Service the sheriff's department contacted Burbank police and Burbank detectives went to the East Los Angeles Station and took Andrade into custody.

During interviews with the Burbank detectives regarding the homicide, Kendrick said Andrade "provided information that cleared Lowe and also convinced investigators Andrade had murdered the woman and acted alone."

However, Kendrick stopped short of saying that Andrade had "confessed" to the murder. "We're not using that language," Kendrick said. Andrade also gave detectives information that led them to recover the knife they believe was used to kill the woman, Kendrick said. "We believe it's the murder weapon and we are running DNA and other tests on it to confirm it's the weapon he used to kill the woman."

Kendrick also told City News Service he doesn't know the motive for the fatal attack. "We do know the three people (woman, Andrade and Lowe) all knew each other, but the woman was not a resident of Burbank," Kendrick said.

Lowe, who had been held in lieu of $1.035 million bail on the homicide charge, according to county jail records, was released from custody this afternoon, Kendrick said.

"We now believe that Lowe was not involved in this homicide," Kendrick said. However, he would not completely rule out the possibility that Lowe could be used as a witness against Andrade.

The killing took place Sunday. Burbank officers were dispatched to the 1900 block of Richard Street at 9:54 p.m. When they found the body they summoned detectives to the scene, Kendrick said.

According to county jail records, Andrade was now being held in lieu of $1.16 million bail for the homicide and other charges. Andrade was arrested by Glendale police on Jan. 28, 2014 on an unspecified misdemeanor charge and released on $26,000 bail. The outcome of that case is unknown.

Andrade is scheduled to go to be arraigned Thursday morning in Burbank on the homicide charge, according to jail records.

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