Slaying of Agoura Hills Woman Shocks UC Berkeley Community : Stabbing: Police seek a motive for the attack on Grace Rualo Asuncion. Friends and family attend Masses for the 20-year-old junior in Westlake Village.

By all accounts, Grace Rualo Asuncion of Agoura Hills was making the most of college life.

The 20-year-old UC Berkeley junior squeezed in Filipino cooking lessons along with her biological research. She planned to apply to medical schools in the spring but managed to attend a formal dance a week ago. And, between midterms, she chaired two committees of the student-run Pilipino American Alliance.

It was in the office of that campus organization that she was killed Friday evening, leaving friends--and police--searching for answers.

“She is the last person you would expect this to happen to,” said Marie-Luise Brennan of Westlake Village, Asuncion’s best friend from high school. “I know it sounds trite, but I don’t know why anyone would want to do that to her.”

Asuncion, a molecular and cell biology major, was found by a custodian about 9:20 p.m. stabbed to death. She had remained in Eshleman Hall, which houses student government offices and organizations, after others left about 5 p.m., students said.

Campus police, who are investigating the crime, had made no arrests by Sunday evening. Detectives were following up leads and interviewing “a variety of people,” Lt. Bill Foley said.

Police know of no motive for the crime, which has stunned the college community.

The administration plans to review security measures at campus buildings, university spokesman Jesus Mena said. In addition, a security guard will be posted at Eshleman Hall to make sure that only students, faculty and staff are allowed in the building. The hall--one of only a few campus buildings in which free access was permitted until midnight--will now close at 9 p.m., Mena said.

UC Berkeley leaders called the killing “a grave setback” to efforts to decrease violent crimes through increased police patrols on campus. Concerns about safety have grown with the rapes of four students on campus property in the past two years and the killing of a student in September, 1990, by a gunman at an off-campus bar.

“As a community, we have endured tragedy before and emerged that much stronger,” said a joint statement issued Sunday by Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien and Mark Yablonovich, president of Associated Students University of California. “We must unite in the memory of Grace Rualo Asuncion and work to make our campus a safer place to live and work.”

Asuncion’s family and university friends attended a memorial service Sunday afternoon at the university’s Catholic center. In addition, prayers were said for her at eight weekend Masses at the Catholic parish she attended with her family in Westlake Village.

Joan Nardone, who heads religious education at St. Jude’s Catholic Church, said the slender, 5-foot-tall student had impressed everyone with her intelligence.

“She was a very smart girl,” Nardone said. “She was going to be somebody.”

Others who knew Asuncion invariably noted how smart she was, but also recalled how the quiet Agoura High School honors graduate didn’t fit a simple profile.

Nan Cano, an English teacher at Agoura High, recalled Asuncion’s sense of humor, how she dressed in period regalia to give a class presentation on “The Canterbury Tales.”

Asuncion also ran on the varsity cross-country team.

“When you see this little bitty person, demure and quiet, the surprise would be to see her rip around and running varsity cross-country,” Cano said.

Asuncion gave up competitive running when she began college, pursuing her childhood plan to become a doctor, Brennan said. “She knew what she wanted to do,” her high school classmate said.

Asuncion’s drive was characteristic of her close-knit Filipino-American family, friends said. Asuncion’s parents are electrical engineers. One older brother attends law school and another is a senior at UC Berkeley, the friends said.

That sibling was one of the reasons she favored Berkeley over other colleges, Brennan said. And scholarships offered by two campus groups made it clear that she was wanted there, Brennan said.

At the university, she maintained her connection with her Filipino roots through the Pilipino American Alliance, helping screen applicants for scholarships offered by the organization and developing tutoring programs for students.

Friends who saw Asuncion during Christmas vacation said she clearly was excited by the college experience.

“She’d worked so hard to be in such a challenging place,” Cano said. “And to have it taken away so cruelly is senseless.”

Times staff writer Jim Herron Zamora contributed to this story.