Family Died of Stabbings

The parents and 16-year-old sister of a Northridge man suspected of killing them died of multiple stab wounds, police said Saturday.

LAPD Officer Norma Eisenman said Brandon Menard was the only suspect in the slayings.

“We believe he acted alone,” Eisenman said.

Police did not disclose a motive or the evidence that led them to arrest Menard, 21.

The bodies of his parents, real estate agent David Menard, 56, and nurse Toni Menard, 55, and his sister, Ashley, were found by police Friday morning after they responded to a 911 call. Menard was booked Friday in Van Nuys.

Toni Menard was an evening nursing supervisor at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, a campus spokesman said. The hospital plans to offer grief counseling to co-workers.

“Toni has been a highly valued part of the hospital family and the nursing department,” spokesman Dan Page said in a statement. “She will be deeply missed.”

Menard told police he found the bodies early Friday.

Friends of Menard expressed disbelief at the arrest.

“I’m so shocked,” said Sharon Rice, who had been an assistant manager at Tuesday Morning, a retail shop in Encino, where Menard had worked as a stocker and cashier. “He’s a very nice boy. I never even saw him angry.”

Menard was a Boy Scout scoutmaster. Rice said he would often pick up or drop off his sister, who was a student at Granada Hills High School and a member of the dance guard.

“He was totally dedicated to kids, totally dedicated to his sister,” said Rice. “He was just like a big kid.”

Menard’s father would also come by the shop to see if his son was available for lunch, Rice said.

Menard’s father “was involved in his life,” Rice said. “It wasn’t like he didn’t care what he was doing.”

Some of Menard’s friends posted messages late Friday night and early Saturday morning on a MySpace website that appears to be his. It lists personal data such as hometown, birth date, job, height and eye color -- all matching Menard’s.

Like many messages on the Web, they contained shorthand and misspellings. A sample:

“Brandon ... y ... would u have killed ur family and sister,” wrote one.

“Brandon tell me whats going on,” wrote another. “I relly dont think you could of done something like this ... I dont no what the boyscout troop would do without u.”

Another wrote, “I SUPORT YOU BRANDON! I KNOW YOU DIDN’T DO IT!”

The author of the website, who calls himself Mbrandon, says he graduated from Granada Hills High School in 2003 and was a student at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.