Slain Mother, Daughter Eulogized : Victim Called Leader of Deaf

A slain daughter and mother, who were found sprawled side by side on their kitchen floor last week, were buried side by side Tuesday.

About 450 people attended a funeral Mass at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange for Priscilla and Josephine Vinci. The bodies of the deaf 34-year-old Priscilla and her mother were discovered May 4 by a neighbor.

Ronald James Blaney Jr., whom police described as deaf, has been charged in the murder of his estranged girlfriend and her 65-year-old mother. Blaney, 30, of Fountain Valley, who was arrested at his mother’s home in Prescott, Ariz., is awaiting an extradition hearing, police said.

Victim Called an Inspiration

Many at the Mass described Priscilla as a leader in the deaf community. She was responsible, friends said, for starting the Orange County chapter of the Southern California Recreation Assn. of the Deaf. Father Michael Geraughty alternately “signed” in hand language for the deaf and spoke during the service. An interpreter, Jeanette Farnsworth, provided most of the translation for the hearing impaired.

Sylvia Yingst, who is deaf, described her close friend Priscilla as “inspirational.” Yingst signed her friend’s eulogy at the Mass as an interpreter translated for the hearing.

“Priscilla was deaf, yet the sound that she heard in her heart was joyous. She inspired us all. She organized so many activities, and we willingly fell in step with her,” Yingst said.

Geraughty urged the crowd to push “the image of senseless violence” that claimed the lives of the mother and daughter out of their minds. “We will probably never understand why they died so tragically,” Geraughty said.

Sylvia Edwards, a teacher of the hearing impaired at Taft Aural Handicapped Elementary School in Santa Ana, said after the Mass that Priscilla was always a positive person.

“She was very, very sweet and always looking ahead,” she said. Priscilla, who once worked at the school as a teacher’s aide, was employed by TRW Information Services Division in Orange at the time of her death.

Grown Son Survives

She and her mother lived alone in the two-story, tan-stucco home in the 1300 block of East Cherry Street in northeast Santa Ana. Their husband and father, Sam Vinci, a retired aerospace engineer, died last December of diabetic complications, neighbors said. An adult son lives in Sacramento, the neighbors said.

To neighbors Ada and Bill Schulz, the Vincis were a lot more than neighbors.

“They weren’t just neighbors,” Ada Schulz said minutes after the Mass. “They were like family. And now we have lost the whole family.”

Josephine Vinci, said Schulz, would often bring over little gifts for the couple’s three children. “She brought over some little (chocolate) bunnies for Easter,” Schulz said. “There is still a bunny left in the refrigerator. It hurts.”