Couple Found Shot to Death in Bed : Santa Paula: Adriana Meza was about to file for divorce from her estranged husband, who is sought for questioning.

A 21-year-old Santa Paula woman and her boyfriend were found shot to death in bed early Thursday after the woman’s young daughter began crying because she could not wake her mother.

A housemate heard the child’s cries about 4:15 a.m. and found the bodies of Adriana Meza and 22-year-old Armando Antonio Cauich in the back bedroom of the stucco house at 709 E. Ventura St. in Santa Paula.

Meza’s daughter, 2-year-old Jessica, was clinging to her mother’s body on the blood-stained mattress sobbing: “Mommy wake up! Mommy wake up!” Santa Paula Police Cmdr. Bob Gonzales said.

The woman’s housemate, who had taken sedatives before going to sleep, told police she was awakened by the muffled sound of gunshots about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. Groggy, she got up to check the house. When she peeked into Meza’s bedroom, she saw the two bodies and thought the couple was sleeping.

Autopsies showed Meza died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Cauich was shot in the head. Police suspect a small caliber handgun was used in the slayings.

Detectives Thursday were looking for the woman’s estranged husband, Everardo Meza of Santa Paula, to question him. While Gonzales stopped short of calling the husband a suspect, he said Meza is the only person they are seeking.

“Once we find him we’ll talk to him and determine whether he is a suspect,” Gonzales said. “We’re hoping he’ll show up and talk to us about his estranged wife.”

Police found Everardo Meza’s white Mustang parked down the street from his wife’s residence when they were called to investigate the double homicide. There was no sign of him and officers impounded the car.

On Thursday, Meza failed to show up for his job at Calavo Growers of California in Santa Paula, where he is employed as a packer. Employees who know Meza said he is a man with an even temper.

“He isn’t impulsive. He’s a nice guy,” Arturo Vasquez said. “He wouldn’t shoot anybody.”

Hours before Adriana Meza was killed, she ate pizza with her estranged husband and their daughter at the house on Ventura Street. The woman recently moved to the house, where she was renting the back bedroom for $250 a month.

She had decorated the walls of her room with religious icons, sentimental poems and pictures of her daughter. Withered roses, a birthday present from Cauich, were in a vase on her dresser. Next to the flowers, a single slice of pizza was left untouched.

It is unclear when Everardo Meza left his estranged wife’s house, but police say Cauich arrived about 11 p.m. Detectives found no sign of struggle or forced entry into the residence.

Adriana Meza was on the verge of filing for divorce and seeking a restraining order against her husband when she was killed, relatives said. The restraining order was awaiting her signature Thursday. She and Cauich had an appointment at 6 p.m. Thursday with a Los Angeles paralegal who was preparing her divorce papers.

Jose Anaya, a paralegal who knows Cauich, said the papers were on his desk Thursday morning when he heard about the killings.

Anaya said Adriana Meza contacted him in late August about ending her troubled, three-year marriage. On Monday, according to Anaya, Cauich had said he was concerned about threats Everardo Meza had made against his wife.

“He mentioned that the husband of Adriana had found her and was creating problems for her,” Anaya said. “I told Armando that if he wanted to protect her he should stay away from her until the divorce was final.”

Gonzales said Adriana Meza, who often used her maiden name of Castanon, had filed one spousal-abuse complaint against her husband, but later dropped the charges.

Employees at the Round Table Pizza in Santa Paula--where Adriana Meza and Cauich worked as supervisors--wept Thursday morning while remembering the couple’s affection for each other. The couple had met at the restaurant.

“The whole time we’ve known her, she’s never been more happy than when she met Armando,” said Dwylene Settlemire, who hired the woman through a youth employment program five years ago.

Another employee, Yvette Bracamonte, recalled how Armando once hid roses for Adriana in the restaurant’s walk-in refrigerator. “It was like a game for him,” she said. “He would do anything for them to be together.”

Times staff writer Scott Hadly contributed to this report.