Huntington Girl Stabbed to Death : Crime: Residents of quiet Garden Grove area where 16-year-old was found say they didn’t hear anything. Police believe assailants stole car she was driving.

A 16-year-old Huntington Beach girl out for the night with friends was stabbed to death and abandoned on a quiet residential street corner early Tuesday by one or more assailants who apparently drove off in her parents’ car, police said.

Mary Irene Lewis, 16, who had just finished her sophomore year at Huntington Beach High School, was found lying face up in a pool of blood in a crosswalk at Acacia Avenue and Brookhurst Way about 1 a.m., two hours after she had called home to check in with her parents, Police Lt. John Woods said.

She had been stabbed about 10 times in the stomach and was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she died about an hour later, police said.

“We don’t know for sure what had happened,” Woods said. “It seems like an unlikely area for a carjacking. It’s sort of isolated. Not many cars go by there. But we have not ruled that out.”

Detectives believe Lewis was stabbed with a knife at the location where her body was found. But neighbors who live nearby said they heard nothing until a motorist who saw the body knocked on their doors and yelled to them to call 911.

A resident who requested anonymity said he looked out his upstairs bedroom window just yards away and saw the girl, dressed in white slacks and a black shirt “and covered with blood.” The neighbor said he didn’t hear screams or any cars leaving the scene. He called police but was told that someone already had alerted authorities.

“We had thought that she was hit by a car,” the neighbor said. “But when we asked the policeman if she was all right, he told us it wasn’t an accident. It’s very sad. She was so young.”

Police arrived and spent three to four hours combing the area for evidence and questioning residents. Investigators are searching for the stolen white 1987 Nissan Sentra with license plate 2EGD875, The car, which the victim had been seen driving earlier that night, belongs to her parents, James and Regina Lewis.

Lewis, the youngest of five children, left her parents’ home in the early evening hours, possibly about 6 p.m., Woods said.

“She said she was going to the beach,” said the victim’s older sister, who added that she was in no condition to talk and walked away, led by two friends.

Police said Lewis, who finished the school year last week, had met some friends in Huntington Beach earlier. But authorities don’t know why she was in Garden Grove.

Lewis’ parents went to bed shortly after an 11 p.m. telephone conversation with their daughter, who told them that she was going to “grab a bite to eat and be home afterward,” Woods said.

Police spent Tuesday tracking down “a fair number of friends” with whom Lewis had spent time that evening, Woods said. Lewis apparently went to the homes of several friends and met others at a park.

Asked if investigators know whom Lewis had spent time with immediately before the stabbing, Woods said, “We don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to determine.”

Police called Lewis’ parents between 1 and 2 a.m. to tell them about the stabbing, and “they are still devastated,” said Theresa Avera-Schreiber, a youth minister who was at the house Tuesday to console the family.

“They’re falling apart,” Avera-Schreiber said. “They can’t talk to you.”

Friends of Lewis and her family gathered at the house Tuesday. Several sat on the front lawn grieving over her death. Neighbors in the quiet community where residents hang American flags from their homes and youngsters play basketball in their driveways were stunned by the incident.

“You feel the shock any time something like this happens,” a neighbor said. “But you feel it even more when it is someone you know.”

Some said Lewis favored dyed jet-black hair and heavy makeup. The mother of one of Lewis’ closest friends, who requested anonymity, said that was just her “sense of individuality speaking.”

“She had a sense of humor,” the woman said. “In fact, she could make God laugh. Nothing could be said that was bad about her.”

Father Michael P. Hanifin, associate pastor at St. Bonaventure Church in Huntington Beach, said he met Lewis in November at a Long Beach hospital where a 15-year-old friend of hers had delivered a baby.

“She really helped her [friend] out and took care of the baby,” Hanifin said. “In fact, the baby is supposed to be baptized in July, and she was supposed to be the godmother.”

Hanifin said Lewis was from a strong Catholic family and regularly attended church “most of her life.”

“But she was your typical teen-ager,” he said. “She had a rebellious streak.”

Residents in the area where Lewis was found were also shocked.

Muriel Virgo, 71, who runs a swim school in the area and lives just around the corner from the crosswalk where Lewis was found, asked, “Are you sure you’re in the right area?” when told about the killing.

Virgo said the area is generally peaceful. The only time she could recall “anything criminal” was when someone stole a stationary bike from her swim school years ago.

Police did not recover a weapon at the scene and detectives are continuing the investigation. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the car is asked to call (714) 741-5704.