Investigators from the San Diego Police Department and crime stoppers are continuing to ask for the public's help in identifying and locating the suspect responsible for the murder of Salvador Mercado in the Palm City area.
On Saturday, Nov. 16, 2003, at midnight Mercado, 25, was stabbed in the 800 block of Harris Avenue where a house party had just finished. Mercado later died at a hospital as a result of his injuries, SDPD said.
The case remains unsolved and investigators continue looking for eyewitnesses to this crime or anyone with information about the suspect responsible for the murder.
“There has to be someone who saw something, there has to be, it can’t have just gone unnoticed,” said Angelina Najera, Mercado’s sister who spoke with NBC 7 back in 2015 when a billboard went up in Chula Vista asking for help in solving the murder.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
“People that were there had the opportunity to grow up, maybe to find a little stronger morals and conscience and maybe build their own families and have learned what it is to love a child,” said Maria Najera, Mercado’s mom back in 2015. “We’re not going to heal, we’re not going to stop thinking about it, it’s always gonna hurt, but finding his killer will be a start.”
Crime Stoppers is offering a $1,000 reward along with a $9,000 reward from Mercado's family to anyone with information that leads to an arrest in the case.
Local
Anyone with information about this murder is asked to call the San Diego Police
Department’s Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or the Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at (888) 580-8477.