Fear and Confusion Haunt Family of Slain Woman

Relatives of Anna Alfaro, slain on Christmas Eve by a man police describe as a jealous ex-boyfriend and gang member, say they spotted the alleged assailant four times in two days after the killing and are living in a surreal atmosphere of fear, confusion and sadness.

“It just brings more anger and pain,” said Fidel Alfaro, one of Anna’s four brothers.

The relatives said they have spotted Ruben Dario Garcia, 20, hiding in bushes and driving by in a yellow car. He even jumped out of the car, driven by another man, to taunt them once, they said.

Police confirmed one sighting of Garcia on Christmas night. But for the grieving Alfaro family, the sightings are real and have compounded the difficulty of coping with the loss of Anna Alfaro, a 22-year-old secretary who had hoped to marry sometime this year.

Police said Garcia has threatened other members of the family. On Tuesday, authorities placed the Alfaro home under police protection, and on Wednesday, black-and-white patrol cars slowly cruised up and down the street.

The patrol cars helped create what Fidel Alfaro described as a nightmare atmosphere.

“Christmas will never be the same,” he said.

The family spent Wednesday making arrangements to bury Anna Alfaro in her native El Salvador. A Christmas tree stood in the living room, woefully out of place.

The night before, television crews and reporters clamored for interviews. The slain woman’s mother, Gloria Alfaro, fainted while watching news accounts of how her daughter’s alleged killer was now stalking the family.

The last reporters disappeared about 4 a.m. Wednesday. At mid-morning, the family members sat about the apartment, rarely talking. A Spanish-language soap opera played on the television but no one watched.

Anna Alfaro’s father, Ricardo Alfaro, led three friends into a bedroom of the modest apartment in Van Nuys and pointed to a white wedding dress hanging above a bed. Yes, the friends agreed, it was lovely.

But the dress, intended for Anna Alfaro and fiance Luis Diaz’s wedding day, will instead serve as her funeral shroud.

The death, and the threats of more violence, had left the family in an emotional limbo.

“We can’t do anything,” said Fidel Alfaro, noting that he had not eaten in three days and had slept little.

“We wait,” Ricardo Alfaro said. “Wait to see what happens.”

Anna Alfaro’s brothers and cousins said Garcia was obsessed with Anna Alfaro. Garcia would call her at work and showed up at her office unexpectedly, said Ernest Alfaro, one of her brothers.

“He was so jealous about my sister,” he said. “That’s because she wanted to dump him and go back to her old boyfriend.”

Ricardo Alfaro described Garcia as a hanger-on who would sometimes show up at dances attended by his daughter and her fiance.

Garcia is believed to be a member of a North Hollywood gang, which could shelter him in the area.

“It’s his turf. He knows the place,” Los Angeles Police Detective Pat Anguiano said.

Authorities said Wednesday that Garcia was being sought on a probation violation warrant and should have been in jail on the night he allegedly killed Alfaro. But he was not in custody because of the backlog of such warrants in Los Angeles County.

Garcia was on probation for a June, 1988, grand theft auto conviction, according to court records. On Dec. 20--four days before Alfaro’s murder--his probation was revoked after Deputy Probation Officer Karl Corrington told a judge that Garcia had stopped attending monthly probation meetings.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber issued a bench warrant ordering Garcia arrested and jailed without bail.

But Garcia was not picked up by police. Authorities said that bench warrants for probation and parole revocation are issued so frequently that it is impossible for police to search for the individuals ordered arrested.

“At any one time, there are thousands and thousands in the system,” said Carol Jackson, a spokeswoman for the county Probation Department.

Alfaro reported to police that she was assaulted by Garcia on Sept. 12, Nov. 16 and Dec. 11, according to police records. Anguiano said Garcia was charged with misdemeanor battery after the first report and that case is still pending. Alfaro declined to file charges in the other two cases.

A fourth incident occurred Friday--two days before her death. Alfaro called police at 6 p.m. and reported that Garcia had visited her home in the 7400 block of Woodman Avenue and threatened her with a knife during an argument.

Garcia was gone when police arrived. The case would have routinely been referred to detectives for investigation after the holiday weekend, but by then Alfaro was dead.