Placentia OKs $10,000 Reward in Cathy Torrez Slaying Case

The City Council has approved a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people involved in the stabbing death of Cal State Fullerton student Cathy Torrez, raising to $30,000 the amount being offered.

Torrez’s employer, Sav-On Drugs, and her union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324, each have offered $10,000.

The council originally had planned to offer a $5,000 reward, but increased the amount when it realized how much the two other organizations were offering.

“The city should (offer) at least $10,000,” Mayor Norman Z. Eckenrode said during Tuesday’s council meeting.

The council also approved two proposals to honor Torrez, 20, whose body was found in her car in the parking lot of Placentia Linda Community Hospital on Feb. 19.

The city’s new learning center, located about one mile from the house where Torrez lived with her family, will be called the Cathy Torrez Center.

Naming the learning center, which opened in Placita Santa Fe last December, for Torrez is a fitting tribute because Torrez worked at two local schools, in addition to her job at Sav-On, Eckenrode said.

“It’s a learning center, and she worked as a tutor at Ruby Drive Elementary and Valencia High School,” he said.

The council also decided to plant a tree in her memory at Kraemer Park, where Torrez worked as a summer day-camp leader two years ago.

Mary Bennett, Torrez’s mother, said Wednesday she appreciates all that the city is doing to “keep Cathy’s memory alive.”

Torrez was an honor student at Cal State Fullerton, majoring in sociology. She wanted to be a social worker or a juvenile probation officer.

“Hopefully, one student will be reached by this and will be inspired by what Cathy was trying to do and will be able to accomplish the things that Cathy wanted to do,” Bennett said. “I want to believe that something wonderful can come from this tragedy.”