Violent Saturday Includes Woman Stabbing Victim

Four homicides were under investigation in Orange County on Saturday, including the murder of a woman who was found stabbed to death in her Huntington Beach home about two hours after she was seen by neighbors sunbathing in the backyard.

An autopsy showed that the victim, Mary Antoinette Allen, 43, bled to death from a stab wound to the neck. She was also stabbed in the chest and left lying on the kitchen floor of the house she shared with in-laws at 6821 Auburn Drive.

“There was certainly a massive amount of blood,” said Police Sgt. Ron Jenkins. Lt. Jim Walter said blood was splattered on the walls and cabinets as well as on the kitchen floor.

Police have no suspects and are unsure of a motive for the slaying. No murder weapon was found in the house, Jenkins said.

‘Quite a Few Homicides’

Santa Ana police were investigating two killings and county sheriff’s deputies classified a fourth death as having occurred under “questionable” circumstances.

“We’ve had quite a few homicides in the last week or so,” Deputy County Coroner Cullen Ellinbergh said Saturday. Ellinbergh said the spate of homicides is unusual for Orange County, but said that the 54 murders committed as of June 18 are “about the same” as occurred last year during the same time frame. During all of 1984, 101 people were slain.

Huntington Beach police said Allen, who shared the home with her sister, brother-in-law and their two children, was still wearing her bathing suit when she was discovered by her 14-year-old nephew and a friend at about 2:55 p.m. There were no obvious signs that she had been sexually assaulted, Jenkins said.

Kitchen Door Unlocked

The front door to the house was locked, but a kitchen door leading to an open garage was left unlocked and could have been used by an intruder to gain access to the home, Jenkins said.

The house was not ransacked and nothing appeared to have been taken, but investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Allen interrupted a burglar when she entered the home.

“That’s an angle we’re looking at,” Jenkins said. “They (the in-laws) haven’t been back inside the house so there might have been some jewelry or something taken that we don’t know about.” The other occupants of the house were staying with relatives Saturday.

- Orange County sheriff’s detec

tives are investigating the “questionable” circumstances surrounding the death of a Riverside man whose body was discovered by the side of a road near Irvine early Saturday.

A passing motorist discovered the body of Daniel J. McTeer, 29, on the south side of Jeffrey Road between Trabuco Road and Bryan Avenue at about 2:10 a.m.

An autopsy was conducted Saturday afternoon but no details were available.

- A Santa Ana man, standing in the driveway of his home, got into an argument with an unknown assailant who pulled a shotgun, fired it several times at close range and then fled in a red Honda.

Police said Cruz Solis, 28, was pronounced dead in front of his home at 1601 W. Lingan Lane after being shot in the head and arm at about 12:55 p.m.

- Earlier Saturday, a 22-year-old man was stabbed to death and another man was slashed on the arm following a family argument in Santa Ana, police said.

The victim, Marino Bello, was discovered dead with a knife wound in his chest when police were called to a home at 1337 W. Walnut St. at about 2:55 a.m., said Police Sgt. Dick Faust. Gabriel Castro, 24, who lived at the house with Bello, was arrested and booked into the Orange County Jail on suspicion of murder, Faust said. Bail was set at $250,000.

Another man who lived at the house, Refugio Bello Olea, 23, was treated at UCI Medical Center in Orange for a stab wound in his arm and later released.

Another Violent Incident

In a fifth violent incident, a 22-year-old Anaheim man was in “grave condition” at UCI Medical Center late Saturday suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck.

Michael Bruce George was shot about 1:40 a.m. during a fight outside the Wolf’s Den at 927 N. Anaheim Blvd., police said.

Two others involved in the fight --Thomas George Hayden, 22, of Fullerton, and Jose Espinoza, 26, of Anaheim--were taken to Anaheim Memorial Hospital, where they were treated and later released. Police said Hayden suffered a minor gunshot wound to the face and Espinoza broke his ankle.

Police said they didn’t know what started the argument.