Update: SF police end probe of Stanislaus girl’s overdose death. Body was found in alley
San Francisco police have closed their investigation into a Stanislaus County teenager found dead in a downtown alley a year ago, accrding to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Key details on how Victorria Moran Hidalgo died at 16 remain unknown, the Chronicle reported Feb. 17. An autopsy revealed fentanyl and other drugs in her system but could not determine her exact manner of death.
A nearby resident found Victorria’s body at about 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2022, on Minna Street near Eighth Street. That part of the South of Market district is known for open-air drug activity.
Victorria’s death was cited by local officials and other people horrified at overdose deaths in San Francisco and beyond. Art teacher Aik Brown told the Chronicle this month about the mural he painted in her memory on the same block.
“That young girl’s death shook all of us up here, and I wanted to honor her life,” said Brown, who had not known her.
Family members told the Chronicle a year ago that Victorria had a difficult childhood and was in and out of foster care. In September 2021, the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department got a report that she was missing in Kern County. She later turned up.
The Chronicle followed up with an April 2022 story based on an autopsy report obtained via a public records request to the city Medical Examiner’s Office. It said the substances found in Victorria’s blood included alcohol, fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.
The report noted that witnesses came upon the Minna Street scene “during the course of a potential sexual assault.” They said the man who was with Victorria fled.
Police told the Chronicle this month that they could find nothing to “support a criminal homicide charge against any individual.”
The state last week released its latest data on overdose deaths to the painkillers known as opioids for 2021. San Francisco led all counties with 435 of the 7,175 cases statewide, the California Department of Public Health said. Stanislaus County lost 108 people.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 11:28 AM.
