Slain Woman Recently Purchased Restaurant

While a handwritten sign was put up on Rigo’s Mexican Restaurant in Anaheim that read: “Closed Until Further Notice,” police Wednesday were continuing their search for the person who killed the restaurant’s owner.

Mary Gunn, 52, was found beaten to death in her Santa Ana home Monday night after an anonymous caller told police that someone may have been killed at the Gunn address in the 1400 block of North Louise Street.

Gunn had recently purchased the restaurant in hopes of making enough money to retire soon, a neighbor said. She also worked during the day at an insurance company.

Neighbors said Gunn lived at the house with her 14-year-old son, Gregory, and had rented a separate part of the house to several different tenants during the four years she been in the Washington Square neighborhood.

Gunn’s most recent tenants were a young couple who moved in a few weeks ago, neighbors said.

When police arrived at the house Monday night, however, they found only Gunn’s body, according to Santa Ana police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas. Officials declined to say whether Gunn’s son has been found or is missing.

Police found Gunn’s body on the floor of a back room of her house. She had been beaten with a blunt object, police said. Some neighbors told police on Tuesday that they had heard loud arguing in Gunn’s home at about 10:30 p.m. Monday.

Police believe the assailant may have fled in Gunn’s 1985 maroon Lincoln Continental, California license plate 1NXW939.