DOWNTOWN — San Diego Police Homicide Unit detectives arrested a suspect in a 1975 murder that occurred inside a downtown massage parlor. The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, working with the San Diego Police Department Homicide Unit, issued an arrest warrant for Leon Johnson, charging him with the 1975 murder of Luz Borrayo, according to a police report. Detectives travelled to Parchman, Miss. On July 22 and took custody of Johnson, where he had been arrested for the warrant. On Nov. 22, 1975, the body of 27 year-old Luz Borrayo was found inside the Twilight Massage Parlor, located at the time in the 600 block of Fifth Avenue. Borrayo had been beaten and strangled. Homicide detectives conducted an exhaustive investigation at the time, but the crime went unsolved for the next 34 years. For the past two years, detectives from the Homicide Unit’s Cold Case Team have been reviewing all of the files related to the investigation and conducting follow-up investigations. Working closely with the police laboratory personnel, the detectives resubmitted viable evidentiary items to the laboratory for analysis and comparison. As a result of the reexamination of the case, the team developed information that led to the identification of Johnson, 57, as the suspect in the case.








