Girl, 14, Held in Fatal Shooting of Stepmother

A 14-year-old girl, whom officers found huddled in a backyard doghouse of her family’s Garden Grove home, was arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of fatally shooting her 23-year-old stepmother.

Garden Grove police Sgt. Bruce Beauchamp said the girl, a Bolsa Grande High School freshman, was taken to the Medical Center of Garden Grove for observation because she was behaving oddly and “blacking out” after her arrest.

He said the girl, whose name was not released because of her age, will be taken to Orange County Juvenile Hall for investigation of murder after her release from the hospital.

On Bedroom Floor

Investigators said Linda Marie Brown was shot twice in the abdomen with a .38-caliber revolver between 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. and died at the scene.

The girl’s father, 32-year-old David Brown, discovered his wife lying on the floor of their bedroom when he returned to the Ocean Breeze Drive home about 3:30 a.m., Beauchamp said. He added that Brown had left the home because his wife and the suspect were arguing.

The girl and her stepmother had been bickering Monday night about “piddling things like doing chores and stuff like that . . . bedtime habits and typical teen-ager stuff,” Beauchamp said.

“The last indication was that the mother had indicated it was time to go to bed, and the girl gave her a sarcastic answer back . . . . The mother had gone to bed earlier, but she was found on the floor, so she was probably not shot in her sleep,” Beauchamp added.