Mother, Daughter Die in Apparent Murder-Suicide

A Tarzana woman shot and killed her teen-age daughter in a Simi Valley home Wednesday before taking her own life, police said.

The shootings occurred about 4:30 p.m. in a house in the 500 block of Pinecliff Place, where the 15-year-old girl was living with a Simi Valley family. Both Emily Ann Christensen and her mother, Karen Marie Christensen, 45, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police Lt. Robert Klamser said police have not established a motive for the deaths.

Klamser said police were called to the scene by a woman inside the house. He said the woman, who was not identified, was hysterical and told police that there was trouble at the house.

When police arrived, they discovered the bodies of the two victims lying on the floor in an upstairs bedroom, Klamser said. A .44-magnum revolver was found in Karen Christensen’s hand, he said. Both victims were shot once in the head.

Klamser would not disclose why Emily was living at the house, but he said the homeowners were her legal guardians and that her mother had apparently come to the house to prepare to attend Emily’s graduation ceremony at Sinaloa Junior High School in Simi Valley.

Klamser would not say who owns the house, but property records show the owners of the two-story house to be Charles Warnick, 48, and Janet Warnick, 47.

Klamser said the slayings were discovered when members of the family got home.

In addition, a young man, who Klamser said is a relative of the Warnick family, showed up at the house a few minutes after police arrived. He was restrained by police after he jumped over a back-yard fence in an attempt to enter the house.

According to property records, the Warnicks bought the house in the quiet, upper-middle class neighborhood in 1985.

Neighbors described the Warnick family as friendly but quiet, mostly keeping to themselves.

The shootings bring the number of homicides that have occurred in Simi Valley so far this year to five, compared with one in all of 1990. The county has had 21 homicides so far this year, surpassing the 20 that occurred in 1990.

“It’s a cyclical thing,” Klamser said of Simi Valley’s rising homicide rate. “This is the fifth murder this year. When you ask why, there’s no answer.”