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Slain Escondido police officer funeral set

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A public memorial service for slain Escondido police Officer Laura Perez will be held Monday at Cal State San Marcos.

The service will begin at 10 a.m. Public parking is available at the campus entrance off La Moree Road and Campus View Drive.

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Perez, 25, was a rookie officer hired by Escondido Police Department in October. She graduated at the top of her policy academy class in December.

Police say Perez’s husband, Freddy Perez-Rodas, shot her in the chest in their Murrieta home on July 23, hid her body in a Moreno Valley storage locker, then torched the house to cover the crime. Their 4-year-old daughter was not injured.

Perez-Rodas, a landscaper, was questioned that night and took investigators to the locker. They found $85,000 to $100,000 in cash in the locker with the body, a spokesman with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said.

Police said Perez-Rodas confessed to the slaying, but he pleaded not guilty Friday to murder and arson charges. He remains in jail on $2 million in bail. The prosecutor told the judge Perez-Rodas was a flight risk, with so much cash and some family in Guatemala.

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