Ray Mata Jr., 31, of Bakersfield, Kern County, California, United States and Graciela Bustamonte, 27, of Delano, Kern County were booked into the Kern County Jail in Bakersfield. They are being held without bail.
Mata has prior gun and drug convictions. Details about his relationship with Bustamonte have yet to be released.
In July 2025, Mata pleaded no contest to carrying a loaded gun without registration and altering a serial number. In a separate case, he pleaded no contest to marijuana possession for sale.
At around 5:40 p.m. on August 2, 2025, Bakersfield Police Department officers were called to the La Quinta Inn on Riverside Drive in Bakersfield for reports of a possible medical emergency. The sources of the report told the officers that they had received second-hand information about a girl who may be unconscious inside a bathtub in the hotel.
The officers found the girl dead in the bathtub. She was 8.
Authorities did not release the name of the girl. She exhibited significant trauma to her body and she was left abandoned in the bathtub.
During the investigation, the officers identified Mata and Bustamonte as the suspects. Authorities did not reveal their relationship with the victim.
On the morning of August 3, 2025, Mata and Bustamonte were both found and arrested on suspicion of torture, murder and multiple counts of child abuse. On August 5, 2025, they will appear in court.
Bakersfield is the fifth largest majority-Hispanic city in the U.S. The city was named after Thomas Baker, a lawyer from Ohio, USA.
On January 3, 2017, Karen K. Goh assumed office as the 26th mayor of Bakersfield. She is a Republican, the first minority mayor of the city and the second woman to hold the position.
The first female mayor of Bakersfield is Mary Katherine Shell, who held the position from January 6, 1981 to January 1, 1985. She turned 91 on February 9, 2018 and died in the city on May 19, 2018.
CONAN Daily 