Slain Newhall Girl’s Father Kills Himself at Her Grave

Wallace Scott Mann spent an all-day vigil Monday at the grave in a Newhall cemetery where his slain 7-year-old daughter was buried, sometimes sitting on the grave, sometimes watching it from his car.

A cemetery worker at the Eternal Valley Memorial Park saw him use red paint to fill in the lines of the happy face and the heart carved on the stone that marks where Sara Nan Hodges was buried. The girl was found strangled March 26 in a neighbor’s home in Newhall after authorities and residents mounted an extensive three-day search for her.

The worker saw Mann paint the petals of the roses carved on the tombstone next to an inscription that reads in part, “Sarie’s magic is everlasting as is our love. Mom & Dad.”

And then sometime during the night, authorities said, Mann, 36, of Ojai, took a shotgun from his car, fired it into his head and fell dead across the grave. His body was found there Tuesday morning, next to a note that said he loved his daughter.

At the time of Sara’s slaying, Mann had been separated from his wife, Linda Hodges, and their daughter for more than three years. But authorities and acquaintances said his daughter’s death and the breakup of his marriage had left Mann severely distraught.

‘He Loved Sara’

“He led an unhappy, troubled life, and he loved Sara,” Hodges said. “It is hard on all of us, maybe it was just too hard for Wally. Maybe he couldn’t go on without her or maybe he wanted to be closer to her.

“I feel sad that there is so much pain and so much anguish. And now there is more.”

Mann was found slumped across the grave at 7 a.m. when a cemetery worker turning on water sprinklers saw the body but thought the man was merely asleep. When the worker attempted to rouse him, he realized that Mann was dead.

Around the body were several wilted roses and other flowers, apparently left by previous visitors to the grave. There also was a note that Mann had written.

“It was just a little note that said ‘I love you’ and other things,” said Dean Sebree, a county coroner’s office investigator. “It’s a little bit rambling, but there’s nothing that says, ‘I am going to commit suicide,’ and it didn’t name the girl. It says he cared deeply for her, words to that effect.”

Mann lived with a sister and brother-in-law in Ojai where, Hodges said, a second note was found. The note more specifically detailed his grief about his separation from his family and the death of Sara.

A 14-year-old boy has been charged with killing the girl and hiding her body for three days in his home behind a bed.

According to Hodges, the second note said “when they took away the visitation rights, they took half my life. When he killed her, he took away the other half.”

Mann’s sister and brother-in-law could not be reached for comment. And authorities could not confirm that a second note had been found.

Wide Attention

Mann’s death was the latest turn in a case that received wide attention in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Sara was reported missing by her family March 23 after she disappeared while playing near her home on Alderbrook Drive.

Sheriff’s deputies conducted a brief house-to-house search in the area. The Sheriff’s Department later organized searches, involving several local residents, of the undeveloped areas near the girl’s home.

She was not found until a woman living five doors from Sara’s house investigated a bad odor in her house and found the girl’s body in the bedroom of a 14-year-old guest, Curtis Cooper. He is awaiting trial in Juvenile Court on murder charges.

The death of the little blonde girl touched the community. Nearly 100 people attended her funeral and community members contributed $30,000 to her family. Hodges later said she and her other daughter, Tisha Gates, 16, would donate the money to a program for children with behavioral problems.

Hodges said Mann had not been in contact with Sara in recent years because Hodges had obtained a court order barring his visits. Hodges said she left her husband because he was emotionally unstable. She said his problems were rooted in his childhood, during which he said he had been abused. But she declined to elaborate.

She said she believed “it was best for the kids” to be away from him. “I knew he loved Sara very much, but some loves are harmful,” she said.

Devout Christian

In the years after they separated, Hodges said, Mann became a devout Christian and contacted her periodically and requested to see his daughter. Though she said that in recent months Mann had been working for his brother-in-law, it was unclear what he did.

Though separated from Mann for about four years, Hodges said, she did not move to finalize the divorce until recently. She said the divorce was expected to be granted this month and may already have been concluded. That may have contributed to Mann’s sense of loss, Hodges said.

Authorities said legal papers regarding the couple’s divorce were found in Mann’s car at the cemetery, but they did not know if the divorce was completed or if the papers contributed to his death.

Times Staff Writer Hector Tobar contributed to this story.