Identities of Slain Woman, Suicide Victim Released

Authorities on Friday identified the body of a woman who was strangled and dumped in Laguna Hills as Lori Mae Calhoun, 41, last known to have lived in Long Beach.

A 30-year-old Lakewood man who fatally shot himself when Orange County sheriff’s investigators knocked on his door to inquire about the woman was also identified on Friday as Steve Christopher Walters.

An autopsy revealed that Calhoun was strangled at an undetermined location before being dumped at the Laguna Hills Commercial Center industrial park, said Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson. Her body was found at 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Investigators went to Walters’ residence on Thursday to inquire about Calhoun because they believed that she had been renting a room at his two-bedroom house, Olson said. The man was not a suspect in the murder at that time, he added.

Investigators declined to say whether Calhoun had lived at Walters’ house. They would say only that her last known address was in Long Beach.

Calhoun is the second woman found dead of strangulation in the Orange County area in a week. On Monday, the body of 16-year-old Zuleima Valdez of Cypress was found in a ditch, partially buried under pine needles, near a Lakewood flood control channel not far from her home.

Both victims were found fully clothed, with no visible signs of trauma to their bodies, authorities said.

However, Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators working on the Valdez case said they have no evidence linking the two deaths.

“Our homicide investigators have not provided any information linking the two,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Linnemeyer. Sheriff’s detectives working on the Valdez case declined to comment on their investigation.

Walters’ home is located about two miles west of the Coyote Creek flood control channel where Valdez’s body was found, near the junction of Lincoln Avenue and Carson Street.

A neighbor of Walters, Frank Livesey, said Walters was a mechanic for a forklift company who had been recently divorced.

Livesey said the man’s brother had shot himself to death just three weeks before Walters took his own life. Walters had traveled to Oregon to attend funeral services and told Livesey that his brother had been distraught over divorce proceedings, Livesey said.

“I tried talking to him when he was mowing the yard, but he wouldn’t raise his head,” Livesey recalled. “I thought it was funny because he was usually friendly. I thought something was bugging him for him to behave like that.”

After the shooting, investigators seized Walters’ van and some items from his house, Olson said, declining to elaborate.