Vigil Held for Women Slain Last Mother’s Day

Tricia Oeser spent Saturday morning remembering two women she never met but whose story was tragically familiar.

“I remember when it happened,” the 38-year-old Glendale woman said of the stabbing deaths last Mother’s Day of Sonia Salinas and Doris Carasi. “My first thought was: It was a man in her life that did it. It usually is.”

Prosecutors say she’s only partly right. They charge that Paul Carasi, 31, of North Hollywood, nearly decapitated his 61-year-old mother, Doris, and his ex-girlfriend Salinas, the mother of his child, after a Mother’s Day dinner. They also say Carasi had help from his current girlfriend, Donna Lee, 45.

Both are in custody on murder charges.

On Saturday, more than two dozen members of the National Organization for Women held a vigil outside the entrance to Universal CityWalk in memory of Salinas and Doris Carasi. They also said they were trying to highlight what they called a chronic problem of sexual harassment at MCA/Universal.

The women’s bloodied bodies were found in a CityWalk parking structure late last Mother’s Day. Paul Carasi told police that attackers had knocked him unconscious as he walked his mother, Salinas and their 2-year-old son, Michael, to his car.

Authorities arrested Carasi and Lee, who was found with stab wounds at the side of the nearby Hollywood Freeway. Investigators say Michael, who was found by security guards strapped into a baby seat in Carasi’s car, may have witnessed the attack.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Gilligan, who is seeking the death penalty against Carasi and Lee, said both recently lost their private attorneys and are being represented by county-paid attorneys. The switch of lawyers may delay trial for a year.

Saturday, Jean Morrison, membership coordinator of NOW’s San Fernando Valley chapter, wrote Salinas’ and Doris Carasi’s names on a T-shirt hung in their memory on NOW’s clothesline project--a string of T-shirts inscribed by female survivors of sexual abuse or families of women who died violently. Standing by the clothesline, NOW members waved placards at motorists condemning violence against women and accusing MCA of bias.

One NOW protester, Tina Suca, ticket manager at the Universal Amphitheater, has filed a complaint with state authorities alleging sexual harassment. Such an action is the first step to a lawsuit, said Suca’s attorney, Ron Martinetti.

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A Universal spokeswoman refused to comment on Suca’s case but said the corporation deplores sexual harassment and was also sympathetic to the vigil for Salinas and Doris Carasi.

Combining the vigil for Salinas and Doris Carasi with a protest against alleged harassment at Universal confused some of those waving placards. Some demonstrators said they were unaware that the vigil was also protesting alleged MCA harassment, and others admitted they knew only a few details of the double murder.

Some passing motorists honked their horns in support. As the activists began to pack up and make lunch plans, a gleaming white limousine drifted past. The passenger stuck his arm out the window and gave the gathering a thumbs up.