Man Kills Estranged Wife, Then Mortally Shoots Himself

A man killed his estranged wife in the parking lot outside her condominium before shooting and mortally wounding himself, police said Saturday.

Zola Ungureanu, 41, was pronounced dead Friday outside her home in the 800 block of Singingwood Street shortly after 8 p.m.

Her husband, Lorel Ungureanu, 48, was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he died Saturday night.

Police said Lorel Ungureanu shot his wife twice at close range with an automatic handgun, hitting her in the face and torso.

“We have no indication of any motive other than the fact that he was apparently despondent that they had broken up about three months ago,” Sgt. Greg McClure said.

Neighbors said Zola Ungureanu had moved into the quiet, fairly isolated complex only a couple of months ago. She was in the process of divorcing her husband and shared her condominium with a woman she worked with at a cosmetics company, said neighbor Lori Klunder.

Klunder said two co-workers had driven Zola Ungureanu home just moments before the shooting and then drove to call the police.

Investigators did not say whether they had located any witnesses.

Neighbor Brian Klunder said Zola Ungureanu mentioned that her husband had previously abused her, but did not give any details. “Nobody seems to know much about them. They were on their own trip,” he said.

The Klunders lived two doors from Zola Ungureanu but said they never heard any arguments when Lorel Ungureanu visited. They said his visits had become more frequent in the past several weeks and that Zola Ungureanu apparently had given him a key to her condominium.

Staring at the hosed-down pavement and the spot where someone left flowers in Zola Ungureanu’s memory, neighbors talked Saturday about how the burst of gunfire shocked their calm community where the most excitement usually comes when coyotes devour pet cats.

“My roommate thought I was crushing cans in the garage,” said Mark Warburton, 28. “Most people thought it was fireworks. They didn’t even know they were gunshots until they heard the sirens.”

Lori Klunder said Zola Ungureanu was a kind woman who liked walking her German shepherd and who still cared about her husband even though she had filed for divorce.

“I asked her what she did for Christmas, and she said she had a dinner at her house,” Lori Klunder said. “She said she had invited Lorel because he had been really depressed. He usually got depressed around the holidays.”