Troubles Weighed on Woman in Family Shooting Deaths

Friends and neighbors of Beverly Grace Dellea, a Huntington Beach woman who police said fatally shot her husband and daughter and then killed herself, described the family as quiet and close-knit but said the woman had been depressed for months over personal problems.

The bodies of Beverly Dellea, 53, her husband, John Edward Dellea, 55, and their daughter Kim Michele Dellea, 30, of Newport Beach were found Thursday at the family’s home in the 20000 block of Harbor Isle Lane. Police called the deaths a murder-suicide.

Police said Beverly Dellea apparently shot her daughter, who was visiting, and then shot her husband, a carpenter, as he entered the house. Kim’s body was found in the garage and John’s body was discovered just inside the front door. Beverly’s body was found next to a .30-caliber rifle in a bedroom, Sgt. William Van Cleve said.

All three had been shot in the torso, he said.

“The husband was definitely taken by surprise. The daughter, we don’t know, but she was not trying to get out,” Van Cleve said Friday. “We are very certain of what occurred.”

The Delleas also have another daughter, Pam Dellea, 26, who lives in New Jersey, and a son, Mark Dellea, 22, who lives with his girlfriend, Julie Ann Sargent, in Costa Mesa. They were not present when the shootings occurred, police said.

Sargent said Beverly Dellea had been depressed for several months over personal problems and legal problems concerning the family’s travel agency, which was sold last year. She would not say what the personal problems were.

“She had a lot of things going on, and there was overwhelming stress,” Sargent said. “There were a lot of things that someone shouldn’t have to put up with all at once. The legal problems were over, but that was a depressing thing for her. There were just lots of personal things and business things going on.

“She was like a second mother to me. I was aware of the depression, but nobody (in the family) knew to what extent it was. I was around her quite a bit. She was the most loving, beautiful person in the world, and nobody can say any different.”

According to a lawsuit filed last December, the business, Worldview Travel in Newport Beach, was jointly owned by Beverly, John and Kim Dellea. They sold the business in June, 1987, for $50,000 to a group called WVT Inc. The Delleas sued the corporation and its agent, Ricci Siegel, claiming that they were not paid the final $30,000 installment.

Siegel, who said she is a consultant for the travel company, said the corporation had asked the escrow company to withhold payment because Beverly Dellea had continued to solicit clients from her home after selling all rights to the company. She said that the lawsuit never went to trial and that the escrow company paid the money to the Delleas on March 11.

Beverly Dellea claimed in the lawsuit that the problems with selling the travel agency had made her emotionally distraught and physically ill. She also said in the suit that she was selling the business because she was concerned that her husband may be terminally ill with cancer.

Sargent said Beverly Dellea was a very religious person and attended church regularly.

“The whole family was very loving, very close. Within the last year or so, she became very religious,” she said.

Jo Ellen Bottorff, 47, who lives across the street from the Delleas, described the family as “just plain ol’ ordinary people, just like anybody else.”

“They were not noisy, you didn’t hear any fights,” she said.

Her 19-year-old son, Gary Bottorff, said he heard the shots while he was sitting in his room. “I heard something that sounded like shots. I thought it was a car blowout or something like that.”

Bottorff said he looked out his window after the second shot and didn’t see anything unusual.

“At first, when the police started to show up, I thought it was a robbery or something, and it just escalated from there. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Joe Martin, who lives two houses down from the family, said he heard a “loud” shot Wednesday afternoon, but he thought it was someone shooting at ducks near the water duct that runs behind his house.

Police said the shootings occurred late Wednesday afternoon, but the bodies were not discovered until about 3 p.m. Thursday when a family friend went to the house looking for Kim Dellea.

The woman, whom police did not identify, said Kim Dellea did not show up for a dinner date Wednesday night and did not answer telephone calls to her home.

Unable to contact anyone, the woman went to the house to see if there was a problem. She saw Kim Dellea’s car in the driveway and a hole in the front door, and she immediately called police, Van Cleve said.

Neither friends nor police would speculate about why the shootings occurred.

“I think this is one for the psychologists,” Van Cleve said. “I am certain there are enough factors that someone schooled in psychology could come up with a pretty good theory. I don’t think that anybody will ever know for sure.”