Ex-Husband Identified as Killer in 3 Slayings, Suicide

A 58-year-old Alhambra man used a 12-gauge shotgun to kill his divorced wife, the couple’s 12-year-old son, the woman’s boyfriend and himself, sheriff’s investigators confirmed a day after the bodies of all four were discovered in a small home in South Pasadena.

Raymond Eugene Larsen, a former Pasadena insurance agent whose ex-wife, Jane Larsen, 49, had secured a restraining order against him, brought the weapon to the house the day after Valentine’s Day, Fidel Gonzales, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said Thursday.

Larsen killed his ex-wife, their son, Benjamin, and his ex-wife’s boyfriend, Michael O’Brien, 43, with the shotgun before shooting himself in the chest. A 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun also recovered in the home had not been fired, Gonzales said.

Jane Larsen, whom friends said feared her former husband’s violent temper and knew he carried weapons, had requested the restraining order from Pasadena Superior Court on Nov. 12, 1991. But the document was not on file with the South Pasadena or Pasadena police departments, authorities said.

“The court doesn’t notify us about the orders,” South Pasadena Police Sgt. Mark Miller said. “People are told that at court and it says it right at the top of the form.”

Those obtaining a restraining order are responsible for notifying local police departments in order to get the protection they sought in court, Miller said.

Jane Larsen’s attorney, Annabelle Dahl, declined to comment on whether police had been notified of the restraining order, saying only that she had done her job.

According to court documents, Jane Larsen obtained a court order Dec. 12, 1991, that prohibited her husband from coming within 100 feet of the family home, at that time in Pasadena. In the court documents, Larsen said her husband left the home July 1, 1991, and returned Nov. 10, forcing her to let him spend the night. Jane Larsen said she spent the night in fear, locked in the bathroom.

The order, also called a “keep away order” is secured at no cost by victims of violence or those who are threatened by violence. It lasts for three years, authorities said.

Police can arrest those who violate the order, Miller said. A first-time violation is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in County Jail and a $1,000 fine. New laws effective this year make a second violation a possible felony, punishable by up to three years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines, said Sean Gallagher, a prosecutor with the district attorney’s domestic violence unit.

Thousands of restraining orders are issued annually, mainly to protect women from men. The orders work well in stopping some men from committing violence, Gallagher said.

But he added, “Even if the order had been filed, it wasn’t going to do anything for (Jane Larsen). If he was intent on killing them, I don’t think a restraining order would weigh real heavy on his mind.”