Reconciliation Turns Fatal : Garden Grove Officer Is Held in Wife’s Slaying; She Had Sought New Start to Marriage

Just last week, 21-year-old Simona Tucker moved back into the Moreno Valley home she shared with her husband, Garden Grove Police Officer Derrick Tucker, hoping for a fresh start to their troubled marriage.

Five days later--on her first Mother’s Day--the 21-year-old Romanian immigrant was dead, and her 32-year-old husband was later booked into jail on suspicion of her murder.

The couple, who were parents of a 9-month-old daughter, had separated several times since their 1991 Las Vegas wedding, and Derrick Tucker was “terrified of losing” his wife, said Simona Tucker’s mother, Irina Cornea.

“He loved her, but he was crazy jealous,” Cornea, who was surrounded by relatives, said Friday from her Anaheim home.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department received a frantic 911 call from Derrick Tucker at 1:09 p.m. Sunday. The police officer told a dispatcher that his wife had been shot in the head with a handgun.

“We were both playing with the gun,” he can be heard saying on a tape of the 6 1/2-minute call, released by the Sheriff’s Department on Friday.

Tucker told the dispatcher the couple had been “hugging and kissing” before his wife was shot and that she was no longer breathing. He said that they had not been arguing.

The couple’s baby, Rebecca Doris Tucker, was sleeping in another room and was not injured.

Tucker, a patrolman with Garden Grove since 1990, was taken in for questioning on Sunday and released pending further investigation, Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Lohman said.

Lohman said Tucker remained a suspect, and that investigators discovered “several discrepancies in his account,” which he would not specify.

Tucker turned himself in to authorities Thursday and is being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on suspicion of murder. His bail has been set at $250,000. He is due to be arraigned Friday in Riverside Municipal Court.

He has been placed on administrative leave from his job.

Simona Tucker’s death has left her close-knit family, who emigrated from Romania to Orange County six years ago, angry and devastated.

“Nobody expected to come to the United States and have this happen,” said the victim’s uncle, Mike Palcu. “We expected bad things to happen in Romania when (dictator Nicolae) Ceausescu was in power. We came here to escape oppression and to be free.”

Simona Tucker was the youngest of four children born to Ioan and Irina Cornea, who are from Medias, a small town in Transylvania. Family members said she spoke excellent English and often served as a translator for them and other members of the Romanian community.

“She was a very good daughter who was very friendly and had good relationships with everyone,” Irina Cornea said. “She’s an angel now who is in heaven, and I hope that one day we will meet her again.”

The family said the couple met in February, 1991, when Tucker was called to the Garden Grove home of a relative who was having a domestic dispute. Tucker left his telephone number with Simona, then began aggressively courting her, family members said.

The couple were married three weeks after that first meeting, relatives said.

“He was very possessive,” said the victim’s sister-in-law, Corina Cornea, 21. “He would call her several times a day. He would call her in the middle of the night. He would call her from work.”

Family members said Tucker was not physically abusive to his wife, but sometimes punched walls and kept a gun under their bed. They said he also tried to keep her away from her family.

Simona Tucker had left her husband at least five times during their marriage, her family said, and had no plans to return after the last separation. But eventually, she did return with their child.

“He told her he was going to make it work and buy her a house closer to her family, so that’s what made her go back to him,” Corina Cornea said.

The family said Simona Tucker’s death was only the beginning of what has been a weeklong nightmare.

Family members learned of her death 12 hours after the shooting, when they were contacted by the coroner’s office. They immediately drove to the Moreno Valley home and spoke with Tucker.

“He hugged us and cried,” said 24-year-old Ioan Cornea Jr., the victim’s oldest brother. “I asked him why he didn’t call us, why did we have to be called by the coroner. I told him that I thought he killed my sister.”

During the four days that Derrick Tucker remained free, he began planning his wife’s funeral without their knowledge, the victim’s relatives said. They feared that he “would have her body cremated and go free,” Ioan Cornea Jr. said.

They said they were relieved to learn that Tucker was in jail. The family then began planning Simona’s funeral, which will be Monday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress.

Family members said they have also not seen the couple’s daughter, who remains with Tucker’s relatives. They said they plan legal action to get custody of the girl.

Meanwhile, the mood was somber at the Garden Grove Police Department on Friday. Officials there said they were unable to discuss the case but some expressed their shock.

“It’s all so bewildering,” Officer Richard Morales said. “It would seem to be extremely out of character.”

Officials said Tucker had not had any disciplinary problems while at the department. He last worked on May 7, the day before the shooting.

“He was even-tempered and always willing to perform,” Sgt. Joe Johnson said. “He hadn’t had any problems internally and was thought of as a very likable young man. There’s a lot of disbelief around here. This is definitely a first for this department.”