A SUSPECT has been arrested in the murder of a Garden Grove woman (Shutterstock).

A suspect was arrested by Garden Grove police after midnight Thursday for the murder of a woman.

According to the GGPD, booked for homicide was Rafael Arechiga after a high-risk car stop.

The investigation began just before 8 p.m. on Wednesday, when GGPD dispatch received a call from the Santa Ana police department to check on the welfare of a woman at an address in Garden Grove. SAPD was conducting an investigation into a possible missing woman.

Shortly after that, GGPD dispatch received a call from an address in the area of the 10400 block of Lampson Avenue, the same address given by Santa Ana police. The person calling said they had been called by the victim’s family and was asked to check on her.

She was found dead, so they immediately called Garden Grove police who responded and located the woman dead in her room. It appeared the death was “not of natural causes.”

Officers learned that the victim had a restraining order against a man named Rafael Arechiga. Prior domestic incidents with GGPD indicated the two “were in a relationship.”

A canvas of the neighborhood revealed that Arechiga had been at the home earlier in the day. The GGPD dispatch located a vehicle description and license plate for Arechiga during a previous encounter with police.

At about 12:42 a.m. on Thursday morning, Garden Grove police officers spotted the vehicle and conducted a high-risk car stop in the area of Chapman Avenue and Brookhurst Street. Arechiga, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was detained for the investigation.

With the help of the Orange County Crime Lab and the coroner’s office, police concluded that Arechiga was the suspect and he was arrested and booked into Orange County Jail for murder.

Anyone with more information on this case is asked to contact Detective Camara at (714) 741-5824.