Requiem for Slain Huntington Girl: ‘It’s Crushing for All of Us’

Mary Irene Lewis had planned to be on her way to Europe for the first time in her life this Sunday.

But a rosary will be said for her instead as family and friends gather at a Huntington Beach Catholic church.

Lewis, 16, a Huntington Beach High School student who had just finished her sophomore year, was stabbed and left dying on a Garden Grove street corner early Tuesday.

“I’m lost without her,” the girl’s mother, Regina Lewis, said Thursday.

“This has brought a lot of questions as to why it had to happen,” she said. “We’re all still trying to answer those questions.”

Relatives and friends said Thursday that Mary Irene Lewis had gone to the Newport Beach Pier with another girlfriend but dropped the friend off at her house about 8 p.m. Three hours later, Lewis called to tell her parents that she was going to get fast food at the corner of Gothard Street and Edinger Avenue and would be home late.

“She would always tell me where she was and who she was with,” her mother said. “At this time, I’m not sure she was doing what she said she was doing.”

An autopsy revealed that the girl had been stabbed 16 times shortly before she was found and she had apparently tried to ward off the attack.

Her car, a 1987 Nissan Sentra that her parents had bought for her just months ago, has not been found and police believe the killer or killers stole the vehicle.

As police continued their investigation, her family made funeral arrangements for the girl, who was described as a delight and fiercely loyal to her loved ones.

The rosary will be recited at 7:30 p.m Sunday at St. Bonaventure Church, 16400 Springdale St. The funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Monday at the church.

A fund has been established to set up a reward to help solve the slaying. Donations can be sent to Bank of America, 7777 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach, CA 92647. Friends are asking anyone with questions about the fund to call (714) 379-1049.

In the bedroom she had shared all of her life with her 19-year-old sister, Anita, a dozen or so cards and several bouquets lay on her twin-size bed. It faced a makeshift altar with dried roses, rosary beads and a statue of the Lady of Guadalupe.

An older brother, Robert Lewis, said he goes to sleep thinking Mary Irene will pull up and storm into her room, telling Anita Lewis about the things she had done that day.

“It’s crushing for all of us,” he said. “She was our light, and our light just went out.”