Deputies Identify Landlord Found Stabbed to Death

Sheriff’s deputies on Thursday identified a 61-year-old landlord who had been found stabbed to death in his home.

Alan J. Schwalbe’s body was found by one of his two roommates Wednesday evening in Schwalbe’s home in the 300 block of 22nd Street. He had been stabbed in the upper body, according to an autopsy performed Thursday.

Homicide investigators said they did not know why Schwalbe was killed and did not have anyone in custody. They declined to elaborate on any details of the slaying.

“There’s too many things that we don’t want to talk about because of the status of the case,” Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said.

Schwalbe, who owned several apartment buildings in the county, was a former member of the Orange County Fair Housing Council, a private, nonprofit organization in Santa Ana that investigates allegations of housing discrimination.

“He was a very intense person concerned about human rights and about people--blacks, Hispanics, gay people--in terms of housing,” said Bob Johnson, a fair housing board member and past chairman.

Schwalbe was bothered by housing discrimination and sought to fight it when renting out his own apartments, Johnson said. He added that Schwalbe--a board member from 1975 to 1985--ran his apartments with the idea that “I own these apartments and it’s my responsibility to treat all people equally.”

At housing council meetings, Schwalbe used to speak on behalf of landlords, but he was extremely sensitive to renter concerns, said David T. Quezada, executive director of the board.