According to the LA Times of May 13, 1993, a maintenance worker found her decomposed body in a hollow brick column at Park Royale Mobile Home Park on Rampart Street in Orange, CA. This was two days after her sister in Lakewood reported her missing and about two weeks after anyone had last seen her. Police said Gandeza had a history of mental illness and might have been in the attic crawl space of the park's recreation building and accidentally fallen into the brick column. She had been staying at the mobile home park with friends after temporarily living in Lakewood with her sister. Her family identified her body through clothing, jewelry and physical features. Residents and employees had noticed a strange odor coming from the brick column for several days before the janitor was sent up to the attic, which was the only access to the column, where he found Gandeza's body head down in the hollow space. Firefighters tore down the column to get the body out.