Friends of the Lancaster woman whose body was found in Angeles National Forest say the mother suffered domestic abuse at the hands of her husband.
A vigil was held Wednesday to honor the life of 33-year-old Sheylla Cabrera, whose body was discovered in the forest over the weekend. Tears were shed and candles were lit at the apartment complex the victim, her husband and their three children lived.
“Sheylla was a very hardworking mother, very amazing friend just very happy all the time,” said Angelica Hernandez, the woman’s friend.
As friends and neighbors of Sheylla shared stories about her, they also shared how she opened up to them about the abuse she endured allegedly by her husband, Jossimar.
“This is really hard for me right now because we tried to get her out,” a woman named Elizabeth said in tears. She added that she recalls a time she told the victim she was afraid her husband would do something to her.
Investigators identified Jossimar as a person of interest in his wife’s death.
Video captured by surveillance cameras at the apartment complex showed the man dragging a large object wrapped in fabric. According to neighbors, who discovered the video, the scene was recorded around 4 a.m. on Aug. 10.
Newly obtained surveillance footage shows the husband of a woman whose body was found in Angeles National Forest dragging a large sack outside their apartment, officials say. Darsha Philips reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.
The victim’s friends reported her missing on Aug. 12 after she stopped responding to their messages.
“We all have a group chat and we all started communicating with her and she wouldn’t answer back, so then her neighbors started going to her apartment looking for her,” Hernandez said.
Her parents said they last spoke with her on Aug. 9 when she told them of her plans to leave Jossimar and take their three young children.
Friends say the victim’s husband gave them conflicting stories of her whereabouts. At first, he said she was detained by federal agents, then he said she ran off with another man.
Jossimar fled to Peru with the couple’s three children and was briefly detained at the airport, but was released hours later because at that time, his wife’s body had not been found. The children are now under the care of Sheylla’s parents.
In an interview with Peruvian media, the husband’s attorney said that is not his client in the surveillance footage and pointed out that the video did not have a date or time stamp.
A cause of death for Sheylla has not been determined.