Grieving Family, Friends Stunned by Man’s Slaying

A 24-year-old skater brutally slain at Tustin High School recently had earned a master’s degree from Georgetown University and was a past president of the UCLA Vietnamese Students Assn., authorities said Tuesday.

Baffled friends and relatives said they didn’t know why anyone would want to harm Thien Minh Ly, who had returned from Washington, D.C., earlier this month and was living with his parents in Tustin while looking for a job.

Ly was slain on a tennis court at Tustin High, where in 1989 he graduated eighth in his class with a 4.53 grade point average. He had been stabbed more than a dozen times and was still wearing his in-line skates when a school janitor found the body early Monday.

Ly graduated from UCLA with a double-major degree in biology and English two years ago. In August, he earned a master’s degree at Georgetown specializing in physiology and biophysics.