LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. – Celeste Rivas Hernandez was just one of the kids in her neighborhood in Lake Elsinore, an Inland Empire community that for generations has drawn young families looking for a piece of suburbia far from the high prices and drama of the big city.
She visited the corner store almost every day with her friends, wearing a backpack and her usual long, curly black hair. She got candy, soda and Takis. She was a familiar face to neighbors and local business owners.
But there was something playing out in her world that she kept to herself…