Mission Viejo Victim Repeatedly Stabbed, Baby Was Smothered

A 25-year-old woman found dead in her apartment had been stabbed repeatedly and her 5-month-old son had been suffocated, authorities said Friday, as they continued to hunt for clues in the two homicides.

Coroner’s officials made a preliminary determination Friday afternoon that the woman, believed to be Jennifer Ji, was stabbed to death in the living room of her two-bedroom apartment.

They are awaiting the results of routine toxicology tests before making a final declaration, said Sgt. Dave Remender of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The victim’s 5-month-old son, thought to be Kevin Ji, was found in his crib in an adjoining bedroom of the $850-a-month apartment in the sprawling 608-unit Vista del Lago complex on Marguerite Parkway.

The woman’s boyfriend and the father’s child, Tseng Jyi Peng, 50, called police after returning from an overseas business trip about midnight Wednesday to find the victim’s bloody body sprawled on the couch in the living room, Sheriff’s Lt. Randy Blair said.

Peng, a Rancho Santa Margarita resident and chief executive officer of San Diego-based Ranger Communications, was questioned about the incident, but is not a suspect.

Sheriff’s deputies said they had discovered the weapon they believe was used in the stabbing in the apartment but declined to identify it.

“It’s the same size and type instrument as that which would have caused the wounds,” Blair said.

Other leads in the case, though, remained elusive. Deputies still have no motive or suspects in the homicides, which occurred about 40 hours before the bodies were discovered. There was no sign that the woman was sexually assaulted or her apartment burglarized, investigators said.

“We have a mysterious victim who kept pretty much to herself,” Blair said. “We’ve got no witnesses who saw or heard anything. And we haven’t had very many calls or tips.”

Blair declined to identify the victims, saying that deputies were still trying to reach family members overseas. The woman is an unemployed Taiwanese national with no known relatives in the United States and about one month left on her visa, he said.

Anyone with information in the case may call Orange County Sheriff’s investigators Don White or Bob Russell at (714) 647-7047.