Victim in Burning Apartment Identified

Police on Monday identified a Fullerton woman whom neighbors found shot to death when they responded to a fire in her apartment Friday night.

Ana Herman, 41, died of a gunshot wound to her head, and police believe someone also had ransacked her two-bedroom apartment in the 200 block of West Knepp Avenue, Fullerton Police Sgt. Greg Mayes said.

Two neighbors detected smoke coming from the fourplex and broke into Herman’s unit, where they found her body in the back bedroom, Mayes said. After they pulled her from the burning apartment, they discovered she had been shot.

Herman, who lived with her father, apparently had had a small party at their apartment that afternoon. He was not home when firefighters doused the fire at 10:15 p.m.

The fire began in a bedroom, but not the one where Herman was found.

“We don’t know if it’s an arson case,” Mayes said. “There were no signs of fire accelerants or any overt act by someone trying to cover up any evidence.”