CSUF Honor Student Died of Stab Wounds

Cathy Torrez, the Cal State Fullerton honor student whose body was found in the trunk of her car, died of multiple stab wounds, police said Sunday.

Placentia police spokeswoman Corrine Loomis said further tests are needed before a time of death can be determined, and she declined to say whether a motive or a suspect has been identified.

“We don’t want to say anything that will jeopardize our investigation,” Loomis said.

Also Sunday, the family of the 20-year-old woman, who had been missing since Feb. 12, issued a statement: “Whatever happened never should have happened. Nobody had a right to take (Cathy) away so young. . . . It would be pretty impossible to find a person who didn’t like her. To begin to think about whoever did this to her is impossible.”

The prepared statement was read by a family spokesman, Albert Gonzales, who joined Loomis at a press conference at Placentia Nazarene Church.

The body of Torrez, a junior sociology major at Cal State Fullerton, was discovered Saturday, a week after the woman vanished after leaving work. Her car was found in the Placentia Linda Community Hospital parking lot by patrol officers, but investigators did not know how long it had been there.

“We are actively soliciting information from any citizen who may have seen Torrez or her vehicle . . . between Feb. 12” and Saturday, Loomis said. The car is a 1990 burgundy Toyota Corolla, license plate number 2RMC 785.

“We need any piece of information, no matter how insignificant it may seem,” Loomis said. “Oftentimes somebody will hear something through the grapevine, because somebody will say something. They need to give us that information.”

Coroner officials declined to comment on the case Sunday, directing all inquiries to police.

Officers said it had not been determined where Torrez met her attacker. She was last seen at 8 p.m. Feb. 12 driving alone out of the parking lot of the Sav-On drugstore at the corner of Bradford Avenue and Yorba Linda Boulevard. She had been a checker at the store for nearly four years.

Described by family and friends as a responsible and conscientious woman who did not like to be out alone, Torrez had called her mother--with whom she lived, along with her stepfather, her brother and one of her two sisters--only minutes before she left work and indicated that she would be home shortly.

Her normal route would have taken her one mile south on Bradford, a residential street lined with homes and apartments. She would have stopped at one stop sign and one stoplight. The hospital parking lot where her body was found is a mile away in an opposite direction.

Gonzales disputed a newspaper report that Torrez may have been romantically involved with a young man who had tried to kill himself the week before she disappeared. He said they were only friends.

A fund has been established to help the family pay for the funeral, which is pending. Donations can be sent to the Cathy Torrez Memorial Fund, c/o Placentia Nazarene Church, 126 N. Walnut Ave., Placentia, Calif. 92670.