2 Friends to Be Charged in Puzzling Deaths of Pasadena Couple : Crime: The pair’s 11-month-old son is found unharmed in apartment with dead father. The mother’s body is found in a creek in San Bernardino County.

Police were trying to find a motive Wednesday for the slaying of a Pasadena couple whose suspected killers were their close friends.

Jeffrey Venable, 25, was found at 2 p.m. Monday suffocated in his ransacked apartment, his hands tied behind his back and his 11-month-old son lying alive on top of him. The baby had been with his dead father for nearly 24 hours when the body was discovered, Venable’s landlady said.

The child’s mother, Robyn Braxton, 20, was found at 7 p.m. Monday. She had died of a gunshot wound and her body was dumped in a remote creek in San Bernardino County.

The district attorney was expected to file murder charges today in Pasadena Superior Court against Frederick Singleton, 27, of Riverside and Christopher Scott, 26, of Fontana. The two were arrested at their homes Tuesday by Pasadena police. Singleton is also being held for investigation of a parole violation, police said.

“The victims did not appear to have any criminal activity in their background,” Pasadena Police Lt. Wayne Hiltz said Wednesday. “At this point, the motive is truly unknown. We’re not sure how a relationship of friendship could end up in a homicide.”

Elaine Moreno, the landlady at the 24-unit, high-security complex in the 400 block of North Oakland Avenue, said she found Venable’s body after his brother arrived and demanded to be let into the apartment.

Venable’s brother told Moreno he had just received a hysterical call from Braxton, who said she had been kidnaped and raped. Braxton reportedly said she had no idea where she was except that she had seen a street sign with the word Fontana.

When Moreno entered the apartment, she said, she found upended drawers and papers strewn everywhere. Venable’s hands were bound with what appeared to be a telephone cord and his mouth covered by a scarf, she said.

The baby was lying listlessly on top of his father, his tiny face pressed close to Venable’s, Moreno said. The infant appeared dehydrated. Moreno said police later told her they estimated Venable’s time of death as 5 p.m.

Braxton’s body was found after two women stopped by the side of California 38, a two-lane road leading to Big Bear Lake, San Bernardino County Deputy Coroner Tom Dewhirst said. The women climbed 200 feet down to Mill Creek and found the body, Dewhirst said.

Moreno said Braxton and Venable were a quiet, athletic, family-oriented couple.

“He’d stay home and take care of the baby and she’d go to work in the morning and come home for lunch,” the landlady said. “She was a really nice girl, real sweet, real jolly, always asking if I needed any help.”

Braxton rented the $600, one-bedroom apartment three months ago and Moreno recalled that Singleton visited once in awhile. But the couple kept mainly to themselves, she said.

Braxton told her that Venable, who was unemployed, was seeking work as a dog trainer. Braxton, a staff member at a Pasadena temporary employment service, exercised at a nearby fitness club in the evenings, Moreno said, usually taking her son with her.

At the same time, Venable often left for tennis games, staying out until 10 p.m.

“I asked him why did he stay out so late playing tennis and he said it was cooler in the evenings,” Moreno said.

The landlady added that she heard the baby crying Sunday evening, but noticed Braxton’s gray Honda Accord parked in its usual space. At 11:30 a.m. Monday, Braxton’s supervisor came to the apartment, concerned that she had missed work without calling.

The landlady said she got no answer when she knocked on their door but decided not to enter with a pass key because she did not suspect that anything was wrong.

She said Braxton’s car was not in its parking space, but she assumed that the couple had gone away, until Venable’s brother arrived about two hours later.

Times staff writer Amy Louise Kazmin contributed to this story.