Slaying Shakes Mission Viejo Neighborhood

Orange County sheriff’s officials are investigating the slaying of an elderly man, discovered by his daughter as she returned early Sunday morning to their home in a quiet, close-knit Mission Viejo neighborhood.

Little information from the investigation was available Sunday. But neighbors said they heard that the man had been stabbed to death and that his home had been ransacked.

Sheriff’s Lt. Harold Schaffroth said that he could not confirm the neighbors’ reports about the stabbing and ransacking, and that investigators are trying to determine the motive in the slaying.

The victim’s name has not been released, pending notification of other relatives, officials said.

Schaffroth said the daughter found her father’s body when she returned about 1 a.m. Sunday to the home on El Moro.

An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, he said.

Neighbors said investigators closed off the short street Sunday to all traffic except residents. They described the victim and his daughter as friendly. They said the two moved in about a year ago and were not well known to residents who had lived longer on the 12-year-old street.

A former resident of the street, who moved away a month ago, said many of the El Moro neighbors have grown to be good friends and hold block parties and 4th of July barbecues together. In fact, many of those neighbors were gathered at her new home Saturday night, said the former resident, who asked not to be identified.

She said some of the women and children returned to their homes on El Moro Saturday night while their husbands stayed longer, past midnight.

“They came home to a street full of cops on the corner,” the former resident said about the husbands.

The victim’s house is atop a hill that slopes down beyond the back fence, which is “open, ranch style” and not a security fence, the former resident said.

Two nearby residents, who also asked not to be identified, said they heard no suspicious noises. But the slaying has shaken up the neighborhood, they said.

“Everyone’s sort of thinking of getting their own firearms,” one neighbor said.

“It’s a little bit frightening,” the other added.