Mission Viejo : Authorities Identify Victims Found in Home

Authorities have confirmed the identities of the victims of an apparent murder-suicide Friday as Robert J. Whennen, 49, and his wife, Sherrian, 45, of Mission Viejo.

Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Conner said the shooting occurred shortly after 6 p.m. at the couple’s home in the 2600 block of Carranza Drive. A handgun was found nearby, he said. He would not say who is suspected of firing the shots.

Authorities said the Whennens’ daughter, who is in her 20s, ran from the house to a neighbor’s home after the slayings. The Whennens’ two teen-age sons were not home.

A neighbor and friend of the Whennens, who did not want to be named, described them as a “church-going, hard-working” couple who had lived in the neighborhood with their three children for 10 years.

He said the couple had moved from Chicago, where Robert Whennen had run a successful catering business with his brother.

Whennen then bought a restaurant in Hollywood, the neighbor said, but it failed after a few years and he filed for bankruptcy in 1983.

At the time of his death, Whennen was employed as a manager at a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant and operated a janitorial business, the neighbor said. His wife also held two jobs as a clerical worker and a computer programmer, he said.

Recently, Whennen had put their house up for sale and planned to move his family to Chicago to rejoin the catering business, the neighbor said. But those plans were dropped because the wife did not want to leave.