MORENO VALLEY - For nearly a week, in various interviews, the Lopez family, of Moreno Valley, begged for their missing 17-year old daughter, Norma Angelica Lopez’s, safe return home. On Wednesday, their pleas turned into mourning. In a news conference where Moreno Valley Police Department spokesperson Sergeant Joe Borja, confirmed the Lopez family and community’s worst fears. The partially decomposed body found in tall grass by a Moreno Valley homeowner working on his property is that of 17-year-old Norma Angelica Lopez. At the conference Borja warned, "There's a murderer out there. Keep track of your children."

Moreno Valley Police, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, FBI, family, friends and concerned community members had been intensely searching for Norma since last Thursday, the day she was reported missing. Riverside County Sheriff’s also set up FindNorma@riversidesheriff.org, a special website to field tips. Family and friends knew something was wrong when she never showed-up at a friend’s house after attending summer school classes at Valley Vista High School.

Deputy Melissa Nieburger, public information officer with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, said Norma disappeared at 10:00 in the morning. Because of the time of day the dark-haired teen disappeared, one would think someone had to see something, but Nieburger said that the area is so rural and remote, there’s a possibility, the crime may have gone unnoticed. The second red flag came when investigators found the teen’s belongings where she usually took a short-cut home or waited to be picked-up.

Nieburger said she couldn’t comment on specifics of how Norma was murdered, the full coroner’s report on the cause of death is expected between 4-6 weeks. But she did say Norma was violently murdered and Riverside County SAFE, Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement, was "conducting a comprehensive investigation" and following up with all leads including registered sex offenders in the area.

SAFE’s website the regional task force that includes Moreno Valley, states they "will focus their efforts on proactive sexual offender monitoring, field audits and inspections of registrants and their address of record, surveillance of serial and violent offender types, non-compliant warrant sweeps, follow-up on sexual offenders who move into or out of the Riverside County jurisdiction to ensure registration requirements are met, fugitive apprehension, and group home monitoring and inspections."

According to the Megan’s Law website, a site that gives the public to access to the whereabouts of registered sex offenders, 185 registered sex offenders live in the city of Moreno Valley.

In the two-mile radius in and around Valley View High School, where Norma was last seen, there are 14 registered sex offenders. According to Google Map directions, the closest address to the high school is only a 3-minute drive.

On the site, each registered sex offender is represented by a blue dot on a map, when you click on the dot you get details of each offender, most includes a picture, their address, aliases, recognizable markings, and crimes committed. Some cities are so densely populated with offenders, the area looks more like a lake or body of water does on a map.

According to the website City-data.com, in Moreno Valley, for every 990 residents there is one is registered sex offender, low when compared to the city of Hemet, for every 326 residents there is one registered sex offender.

The list of sexual crimes committed by some of the registrants near the location where Norma disappeared are disturbing, they include:

attempted rape, touching a person intimately against their will, lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, continuous abuse of a child, sexual battery and forcible rape. Another disturbing number that can be found on a chart on SAFE’s website, is that nearly 6% of convicted sex offenders do not register their address within the 90 days required by law, if at all.

Under Jessica’s Law, (named after 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was kidnapped, held captive for a weekend, raped and murdered by convicted sex offender, 47-year-old John Couey in Florida) in California, convicted sex offenders that are released are not allowed to live closer than 2,000 feet away from a school or park. On the Megan’s Law map, living only 276 feet from Valley Christian Academy and Moreno Christian High School are two registered sex offenders. One has been convicted of rape by force and the other of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14. According to Google Map directions the walk from the offenders’ homes to the school only takes 59 seconds.

According to the US Department of Justice, within 3 years after their release, just over 5 percent of sex offenders were rearrested for committing another sex crime.

California residents were painfully made aware of the flaws in the system when the Associated Press released an investigation in 2003 that uncovered the Golden State loses track of 43 percent of registered sex offenders who register at least once and more recently when they learned that James Gardner III, the convicted sex offender found guilty of the rape and murders 14-year-old Amber Dubois, 17-year-old Chelsea King and attempted rape of a college student, prior to the murders, served five years of a six-year sentence despite the recommendations of a psychiatrist that he serve the maximum 10 years. Gardner’s GPS monitoring device was removed, having expired in 2008 and was he was registered in Lake Elsinore but would often stay extended periods of time with his mother in Rancho Bernardo, near the locations where the teens were murdered. In May, Gardner was ordered to serve to 2-consecutive life sentences plus 25-years in prison without parole for those murders.

Recently Jaycee Dugard, who was held captive for 18-years by a convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, was awarded $20 million dollars after California lawmakers approved the settlement when proof emerged that on several occasions, probation officers had failed to inspect Garrido’s backyard where Dugard and her two daughters, fathered by Garrido, were living in tents.

Documents released to the AP confirm the Dubois family has also filed a claim against the state seeking damages for an unspecified amount.

Maurice, Amber Dubois’ father, addressed the court at the sentencing of his daughter’s murderer, asked, "Again, I cannot help to ask on behalf of my family, who is at fault here? Is it this cold, heartless monster, is it the failures in the law enforcement systems or perhaps it is even us who have not forced and held accountable the people and the organizations who are supposed to protect us from these predators?"

Norma’s family has asked for privacy but her father, Martin Lopez, in an interview with Spanish language news station KMEX, said, "I feel like my heart is destroyed and I ask God to grant us peace and serenity and that He now has her in His Glory."

Nieburger says they’re still looking to question the owner or passengers seen in the area of a green SUV. She says they’re not suspects but may have seen something that can break the case.

She also urged anyone with any information no matter how insignificant to call 1(877) 242-4345.