Politics & Government

$50K Reward Approved in Unsolved Death of French Valley Woman

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone proposed a $50,000 reward for new information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects responsible for the roadside death of Wanda McGlover.

UPDATED at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 15:

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors today approved a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the death of a 68-year-old French Valley woman last fall.

"This beautiful woman, Wanda G. McGlover, was found dead on the side of a road near her home," said Supervisor Jeff Stone, who proposed the unanimously approved reward.

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"The case is cold," he said. "There are more questions than answers about what happened to her."

According to sheriff's investigators, McGlover was taking her morning stroll after walking one of her foster children to a bus stop near Brookridge Drive and Washington Street when she was struck from behind around 8:30 a.m. last Sept. 21. She died a short time later at a Murrieta hospital.

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McGlover had been talking to her adult daughter on her mobile phone. The woman, one of the victim's four natural children, immediately called 911 after hearing her mother scream.

Megan McGlover told the board today that her mother was walking a route she had taken many times  over the years.

"Ask anyone within a 10-mile radius whether they remember a lovely woman in a hat, always ready with a wave and a smile, and they would say 'Yes, I remember her,"' her daughter said. "She will not be there for my wedding. She will not be there for the birth of my first child."

She said her mother's passions included providing a foster home for special needs children, church and piano.

"She was an educated community monument," Megan McGlover recalled. "She could've been your mother. Because the person who did this to her hasn't been found, we'll all have to keep looking over our shoulder."

Investigators still don't know whether the victim was attacked by someone on foot or hit by a car.

"She was struck behind the head," Stone said. "Whoever hit her, whether it was a (vehicular) hit-and-run or a deliberate act, they caused her to go down. This has the potential of being a murder in a very safe, quiet area of southwest Riverside County."

The $50,000 reward is backed by Stone's community improvement budget, which is discretionary. Each board member has one.

—City News Service

ORIGINAL POST:

With the roadside death of a French Valley woman still unsolved, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone is recommending a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect or suspects responsible.

During a 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday, Stone, whose third district includes Temecula, Murrieta and Winchester, will ask his fellow supervisors to approve the reward amount.

The nearly lifeless body of Wanda McGlover, 68, on Brookridge Lane off Washington Street. McGlover was known to take walks in the area; on that fateful morning she was found just a few blocks from her home in the French Valley area of Winchester, northeast of Murrieta and Temecula.

She was pronounced dead a short time later at a local hospital.

"Family members fear that the death is the result of criminal activity," Stone wrote, in his proposal.

Read about their plea for help here.

The reward would be payable in the event new information leads to the capture and conviction of the suspect or suspects, according to the agenda report.

Anyone with information regarding the circumstances leading to her death should call the Riverside County Sheriff's Department Central Homicide Unit tip line at 951-955-2777.

According to Stone proposal, if more than one person files a claim for the reward, the county will confer with the Sheriff's Department to determine the importance of the information to the investigation.

The Board of Supervisors would then determine what portion of the $50,000 should go to which claimant.


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