East Tustin Boy, 13, Fatally Stabbed; Police Seek Motive

A 13-year-old boy was found stabbed to death Thursday afternoon on the kitchen floor of his family’s East Tustin home--just a short time after he rode his bike from school, authorities said.

The boy was identified as Greg Anderson by neighbors and his best friend. A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said the youth appeared to have suffered “stabs to his body.”

Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said the boy’s 15-year-old sister arrived home from school at about 3 p.m. and saw her brother lying on the floor. She ran next door to Matt House’s home, according to House, and said: “My brother is lying on the floor, and I think someone is in the house.”

House said he entered the kitchen and found Greg lying face-down in a pool of blood, a knife near the body. Paramedics arrived and pronounced the boy dead.

Detectives said that they were baffled by a motive for the slaying and that they were trying to determine whether someone had broken into the neatly kept home or perhaps entered through a door left open.

As investigators worked into the night combing the Anderson home for possible evidence, the boy’s parents and sister grieved next door at the House residence. Greg’s father, who was not identified by police, did not learn of his son’s death until he returned late Thursday from a business trip, House said.

“If the kid was trouble, you would still feel bad,” said Paul Corrigan, whose son, Jason, was Greg’s best friend. “But to pick a perfect little kid. . . . All that time that kid put in studying. . . . “

The boy’s stepmother, who also was not identified by police, told investigators that she had left the home in the 18700 block of Bikini Place at 2:10 p.m. and that her son usually arrived home from school by 2:30 p.m. She told police that Greg usually rode his motocross bike, which was found parked in the Anderson driveway.

Witnesses said she returned home to find investigators there.

Residents of the affluent neighborhood in unincorporated county territory were stunned and frightened by the boy’s murder. Children said they were afraid of being alone now after school.

Greg, 5 feet, 4 inches tall, his sandy brown hair short and straight and wearing clear braces on his teeth, was a well-liked seventh-grader at Hewes Middle School, friends said. They described him as quiet but friendly and extremely studious. They said he loved to go fishing and golfing with his father and enjoyed riding his bike.

Greg’s principal, Julie Hume, said he was an honor student and described him as “a really quiet boy, a fine student.” She said his death will be announced at school this morning. Students will share a moment of silence in memory of Greg, and the school flag will be flown at half-staff. Hume said a psychologist also will be on campus to help students cope with the slaying.

“I’m trying to think of ways to tell a school full of 12- and 13-year-olds how something like this could happen,” Hume said. “There will be sadness and perhaps some anxieties. . . . In the middle of the day,” she said of the slaying. “That’s what gets me. It’s an affluent neighborhood. Nice homes, nice families, nice kids.”

Greg’s best friend, Jason Corrigan, 12, spoke wistfully of having seen his friend 10 minutes after school let out, at the bike racks.

“He seemed all right. He was smiling and everything,” Jason said. “We rode bikes and stuff together. . . . The funny thing is, every day I would go over and see how much homework he had to do before we could go out and play. But today, I didn’t.”