Woman Killed in Santa Ana; Boyfriend Held

A 34-year-old mother was killed early Sunday in the bathroom of her home during an argument with her live-in boyfriend, police said.

Police identified the woman as Laverne Victoria Montano of the 300 block of East Pomona Street in Santa Ana. Her boyfriend, identified by police as 31-year-old Daniel Lopez, turned himself in to authorities several hours after the 12:30 a.m. incident, said Sgt. Don Robertson. He is being held on suspicion of murder.

According to police, Montano and Lopez began arguing after midnight. Lopez allegedly followed Montano into the bathroom, where the verbal argument turned physical; Montano was killed during the ensuing struggle, police said.

After the incident, Lopez allegedly ran out the back door. Some of the couple’s roommates found Montano’s body on the bathroom floor and called police, Robertson said. Police declined to release a cause of death, pending an autopsy.

The people who lived in the house with Lopez and Montano refused to discuss the incident. Some of the couple’s neighbors on the quiet residential street said they were awakened by the woman’s screams.

One woman, who asked not to be identified, said Montano’s young daughter was in the house when her mother was killed. After the incident, the woman said, the girl ran into the street calling for someone to help her mother.

According to neighbors, two families shared the small, one-story house: Lopez’s pregnant sister, her husband and four children, and Montano, her young daughter and Lopez.