9-Year-Old Girl Was Stabbed to Death, Autopsy Finds

A 9-year-old girl, killed during a burglary while waiting for her mother to come home from work, was stabbed to death, according to preliminary results of an autopsy completed Saturday.

Lt. Richard Olson, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said coroner’s officials reached the tentative conclusion during an investigation of the death of Autumn Wallace, whose body was found by her mother about 5:45 p.m. Friday.

“Preliminary findings show that she died of multiple stab wounds,” said Olson, who declined to elaborate on the murder weapon or the number of times the girl was stabbed.

Investigators believe that Autumn was killed when one or more intruders broke into the Wallace home while the girl was alone. She was last seen by neighbors playing in front of her home on Hudlund Drive in an unincorporated area between Stanton and Anaheim.

As of late Saturday, no one had been arrested and no suspects had been found, Olson said. “About all I can say is that the investigation is continuing. We are going to do this as thoroughly as we can.”

Autumn’s 18-year-old sister, April, said she arrived home from work about 5:20 p.m. Friday and entered the house through a garage door. She said she immediately noticed that things were missing from the house and from her room, including a TV, videotape recorder, microwave oven and a mirror.

Frightened, April went across the street to a neighbor’s house and asked whether anyone had seen anything unusual. Before she left the house, she noticed that a light in the back bathroom of the house was on, but did not think anything of it, she recalled later.

Autumn’s mother, Linda Wallace, 42, came home from her job as a clerk at Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana about 20 minutes later. Olson said she searched the house and found her daughter’s body in the back bathroom.

At the family’s ransacked home Saturday, sheriff’s investigators searched through scattered family belongings for clues in the slaying.

Meanwhile, residents asked why their quiet neighborhood was a target for such a senseless crime.

“This is not a rich neighborhood, it’s pretty working class,” said Randall Decker, 28, a neighbor who called police for Linda Wallace when she ran screaming from the house. “It’s very quiet and peaceful, a lot of kids. The neighbors here watch out for everybody else.”

Decker said Autumn was a fixture in the community--everyone knew her and she always had a ready smile and hello. She loved to play basketball with other neighborhood children and frequently used the basketball hoop atop Decker’s garage, neighbors said.

Staff writer Carla Rivera contributed to this story.