Slain Woman: She Just Wanted to Be a Friend

By all descriptions, Susan A. Spencley was a giver. At canning time, neighbors along her street in La Habra received samples of her cooking. At Christmastime, she spent weeks baking for her friends.

A devout Christian, all the 62-year-old La Habra widow wanted from her friendship with William O. Martin was that he go to church with her and straighten out his troubled life, according to relatives.

“She was interested in his soul,” said her sister-in-law, Evelyn Sprouse of Brea. But Martin, 62, of La Habra wanted more of Mrs. Spencley than spiritual companionship, relatives said.

Repeatedly, “he told her, ‘If I can’t have you, no one else will,’ ” said Mrs. Spencley’s daughter, Shirley Mead. Her mother was distressed, and relatives were worried, Mead said, but no one foresaw what was to follow.

Met in Front Yard

On Sunday morning, in Mrs. Spencley’s front yard, Martin fired five shots into her back and one more into her head before he turned the gun on himself, police said. Both were killed.

Mrs. Spencley had just returned from church when Martin confronted her, Sprouse said. She turned her back on him and began to walk away when Martin fired, Sprouse said. A neighbor said Mrs. Spencley was still clutching her prayer book.

“She was a wonderful, wonderful person. She gave more than anyone could ever give,” Mead said. “She was such a loving person.”

Mead’s mother had been a close friend of Martin’s family and had struck up a relationship with Martin to try “to win him over to Christ. That was her only contact with him,” Mead said. “But he had the feeling there was something between them.”

Despite her mother’s firm objections, Martin called Mrs. Spencley “at all hours,” Mead said. Her mother was deeply distressed about the situation but mostly kept quiet, although she let a few of her worries slip out to the family, Mead said.

“I told her to report him, and she did try, once,” Mead said. Her mother was advised to change her phone number, which was hardly sufficient to keep Martin away, the daughter said.

Sprouse, who was Mrs. Spencley’s “best friend and confidante” for 34 years, said Martin “had her (Spencley) scared and worried.” Still, Mrs. Spencley didn’t divulge her troubles to Sprouse right away. “She didn’t want me to tell my husband (Spencley’s brother, Bill) because he would just worry,” Sprouse said.

But Sprouse could tell something was wrong; her sister-in-law looked troubled and was losing weight. “I pinned her down about two weeks ago,” she said. Mrs. Spencley--who had nursed her late husband, James, through a long bout of cancer until his death three years ago--said she had told Martin that she still loved and missed her husband and did not desire anything more than friendship. But that made no impact on Martin, Sprouse said.

“She said he was putting so much pressure on her, she was getting afraid of him,” Sprouse said. Sprouse told her husband, and the couple began to spend more time with Mrs. Spencley to help her through her difficulties.

On Saturday night, the Sprouses took her for a night of bowling with friends. “She had a marvelous time. She seemed so relaxed,” her sister-in-law said.

“She got up the next morning and went to church. When she got back, he was waiting for her,” Sprouse said.

With six shots, Martin “took her away from all of us. If God ever sent angels here to earth, she was one of them,” Sprouse said. “She was the type of person you come across once in a lifetime. . . . This was something he took on himself. He had no rights whatsoever on her life.”