SANTA ANA : Woman Beaten to Death Is Identified

Police on Sunday identified an apartment manager who was found beaten to death a day earlier but said they were no closer to discovering the murder weapon or a motive for the crime.

Tenants on Saturday found Rose Mary Cedeno, 50, lying on her blood-spattered bedroom floor on Washington Avenue, dead from severe head injuries.

Sgt. Robert Ensley said Cedeno’s wounds were caused by “blunt force trauma.”

Although an autopsy was performed Sunday, police were not immediately able to describe the weapon that caused her fatal blows or say how long she had been dead, Ensley said.

Autopsy results might not be available for two weeks, but homicide detectives were continuing to investigate the case, Ensley said.

Cedeno’s body was discovered by several tenants who were also her friends, the watch commander said. “They were trying to pay the rent, and she wasn’t answering the door,” Ensley said.

Knowing that Cedeno was a diabetic and fearing that she had suffered a diabetic stroke, the tenants on Saturday afternoon broke a kitchen window and entered her apartment in the small stucco complex at 425 W. Washington Ave.

When they found blood and Cedeno’s body on the floor, they quickly left and called police, Ensley said.

Former tenant Dorothy Dailey, who moved out of the complex in September, described Cedeno as a foreign-born, single woman who accepted the rent but otherwise kept to herself. “I don’t think she knew too much English,” Dailey said.

Dailey said the apartment building was sold last summer to more “businesslike” owners from Newport Beach. The new owners hired Cedeno, Dailey said, and announced that they were raising the rent--from $335 to $400 a month each for six small apartments with a kitchen, living room and bedroom.