HOLLISTER, Calif. - Hollister Police have made several arrests in connection with the 2011 homicide of 39-year-old Mark Arballo.
Hollister police say they solved a murder and it's all because of your help. It's rare witnesses come forward with information, but this time they did, and it helped officers find six suspects.
It was a little more than a year ago, when Arballo was walking home on Hill Street, when a group brutally attacked him. A month later, he died at the hospital.
"He can rest in peace for what they did to him, because it wasn't right," says Guadalupe Amaya, victim's aunt. "No one deserves what happened to him."
Arballo's aunt and other family members said they finally got some closure. They thought this case would never be solved.
"The people who do this could easily scatter all over the place," says Amaya. "They will never find them."
But this week, Hollister Police arrested six suspects, including 22-year-old Conrad Copado, who is in state prison for other crimes. The other five are juveniles and two of them girls. Investigators arrested them in Santa Clara County and Hollister.
Police said, Arballo was not a gang member, but all the suspects are. While most people stay away from gang crime, this case is different.
"There were people that were willing to talk to us, people that wanted to help us," says Hollister Police Captain Dave Westrick.
Police said witnesses came forward right away. That played a huge role. They even got tips on their anonymous We-tip line, on Facebook and through a Nixle Alert.
The family thinks it's because Arballo was born and raised in Hollister, and a lot of people know them.
"I do appreciate it because when you are walking this road and no one wants to step forward, and people know something you wonder why, you would want someone to say something," says Genevieve Arballo.
"When I heard this had happened to him, I couldn't believe it," says Amaya. "And I'm glad it finally happened and justice will be served."
So far, three out of the five homicides in Hollister last year have been solved.
Submitted by Azenith Smith, Central Coast News
Conrad Copado
