Woman Stabbed Fatally; Neighbors Heard Struggle

A Colombian-born woman was stabbed to death Tuesday night after apparently struggling with a man who left her El Toro apartment moments before her son and daughter returned from renting a video, neighbors said on Wednesday.

The bloody body of Ana Castellanos, 50, was discovered at 8:50 p.m. Tuesday by her son, who noticed that the front door to her upstairs Farthing Street apartment had been left ajar, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said Wednesday.

“Through the door, the son observed the victim . . . lying on the floor of the front room,” said Olson, who would not identify the 32-year-old son, also a native of Colombia.

Sheriff’s officials released few details surrounding Castellanos’ slaying in her upstairs apartment, located in the Villa Viejo apartment complex near the intersection of El Toro and Jeronimo roads.

But witnesses said that Castellanos, who lived in the apartment with at least one other family member, was overheard struggling with someone around the time of her death.

Neighbor George Schwable, who has lived for five years in the apartment below the Castellanos unit, said Castellanos was recently involved in a dispute with a man he described as short and heavyset.

“She told him to move out,” Schwable said.

Schwable said he and his wife, Ruthie, were watching television just before 9 p.m. when they heard loud noises upstairs.

“It sounded like three body slams right on the floor,” Schwable said. “Boom. Boom. Boom. Like that. It shook the pictures and shook the walls.”