Santa Ana Police Identify Woman Stabbed to Death
Police on Thursday identified the partially decomposed body of a woman, found in her boardinghouse room, who had been dead for four days.
Maricela Villegas, 44, was found Wednesday with a stab wound in the chest, police said. Tenants who lived with Villegas in a boardinghouse in the 3300 block of West Sisson Street had not seen her since she had an argument in her room with an unidentified man Saturday night, police said.
The boardinghouse owner, Onofre Fernandez, said tenants told him the pair had been drinking before the argument.
Sgt. Art Echternacht said police do not know what the argument was about or who killed her.
Maria Miranda, 20, who found Villegas’ body, said she did not know when the woman was killed. “I live downstairs,” she said, “and I did not hear anything.”
The woman’s death shocked the residents in the two-story home, Miranda said. “I don’t like to talk about it,” she said. “I’ve been nervous and can’t sleep. I’m real jumpy and I don’t like being in the house alone.”
Tenants did not check on Villegas after the argument because they thought she was out of town visiting one of her three sons, Fernandez said.
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