Fund Set Up to Aid 6 Children Orphaned by Murder-Suicide

A trust fund has been established for the six Anaheim children left homeless and orphaned last week when their father shot their mother to death, then killed himself, authorities said.

Donations or assistance on behalf of the children of Bertha Chevas and Jesus B. Carrillo can be sent to the Orangewood Foundation, a nonprofit fund-raising branch of the county children’s emergency shelter.

The address is 3400 Irvine Ave., Suite 108, Newport Beach 92660.

Bill Steiner, executive director of the foundation, said Tuesday that the organization began the trust fund with its own donation of $1,000 to create a central place for the public to contact if they wish to help. The foundation will administer the account for the children at no charge, he said.

Since the parents were killed Thursday in an apparent murder-suicide, workers at Orangewood, the county shelter for abused, abandoned and dependent children, have been inundated with calls offering help and donations for the orphans, Steiner said.

Anaheim Police Lt. Billy Wright said his department also has received scores of queries from good Samaritans wanting to help.

Anaheim police have said that 13-year-old Jesus Carrillo arrived home from school last Thursday afternoon and discovered the bodies of his mother and father lying in a bedroom closet.

Police said Bertha Chevas, a 30-year-old battered wife, was shot by her estranged husband, Jesus B. Carrillo, 43, who then turned the gun to his own temple.

Two of the children’s uncles, both of them residents of a suburb of Guadalajara, Mexico, have been contacted by police.

A custody hearing to decide who will take charge of the children--a relative or the county--is scheduled for this morning in Orange County Juvenile Court, Steiner said.