Police Believe Acquaintance Killed Torrez : Murder: Placentia chief says he can’t rule out random attack, but the scant evidence indicates that the college honor student probably knew her assailant.

Cal State Fullerton student Cathy Torrez likely knew her slayer, and her stabbing probably was not a random killing, the police chief said Wednesday.

“All evidence points to (her attacker being) someone she knew and who knew her,” Placentia Police Chief Manuel Ortega said. While not ruling out a random attack by a stranger, Ortega said his years of police experience and his knowledge of the victim and her family, as well as some of the details that have emerged from the investigation, lead to his conclusion.

But important evidence leading to the killer may have been washed away in the rain, Ortega also said.

The body of Torrez, 20, was discovered early Saturday morning in the trunk of her car in the parking lot of Placentia-Linda Community Hospital. She had been missing since 8 p.m. Feb. 12, the previous Saturday, when a female co-worker saw her drive apparently alone out of the parking lot of the Sav-On Drugs store after the two got off work.

Police said Wednesday that Torrez’s car was first noticed by hospital employees in the parking lot on Feb. 14. But because they didn’t know it had been reported missing, they didn’t call police. An officer on patrol spotted it at 1 a.m. five days later.

Tests are still being conducted to determine the exact day Torrez died, officials said.

Described by family and friends as responsible and conscientious, Torrez had called her mother minutes before she left work to say she was coming straight home--a one-mile drive down a residential street.

“She was a Cal State Fullerton honor student. She wouldn’t have stopped for a stranger,” Ortega said, citing some of the evidence that the killer was an acquaintance. “I don’t think it was random at all.”

Mary Bennett, Torrez’s mother, said Wednesday the family also believes Torrez was killed by an acquaintance, although they find it difficult to accept. Torrez, who lived with her mother, stepfather, brother and a sister, was well-liked and had no apparent enemies, her family and friends have said.

“Cathy wouldn’t have stopped for a stranger,” Bennett agreed Wednesday. “But it is very hard for us to think that somebody who knew Cathy could have done something like this to her.”

A major stumbling block for investigators may be the heavy rain that fell for several days between the time the car was left in the parking lot and when Torrez’s body was discovered inside, Ortega said.

“What bothers me is the rain could have washed away some physical evidence” in the parking lot and where the killing occurred, Ortega said.

Ortega dismissed any link between Torrez’s death and the suicide attempt of a male friend days before her disappearance, as his family had suggested. The man has been in a coma at UCI Medical Center since he tried to hang himself.

But the man did speak to Torrez at length in the days before his suicide attempt, Ortega said, so that could make him a valuable source of information.

Bennett and Torrez’s father, Martin Torrez Sr. of La Puente, said they hope somebody will come forward with information. Sav-On and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Cathy Torrez’s union, announced Wednesday that they are offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer.

Anyone with information should contact (714) 993-8164 or (714) 993-8146.

“My daughter is dead and whoever did it is walking free and breathing,” Bennett said. “They had no right to do that. It is not fair. . . . Not knowing who did this is tearing my family apart.”

Torrez’s wake will be at 8:30 tonight at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 717 N. Bradford Ave., Placentia, officials said. The funeral will be at the same church at 10 a.m. Friday. Burial will follow at the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange.

Times staff writer Thuan Le contributed to this report.