Son Arrested in Fatal Stabbing of Mother, 76

A 76-year-old widow who had been a friendly fixture in South Pasadena for decades was stabbed to death Wednesday morning by her only son, authorities said.

Tell Herber III, 45, confessed to a 911 operator shortly after attacking his mother, Rita, with a kitchen knife, said Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Brown. He was arrested on suspicion of murder.

No motive was given.

Word of the stabbing stunned the otherwise quiet Elmpark Street neighborhood, where residents sobbed while discussing the woman’s death.

Neighbors said they enjoyed daily chats with Rita Herber about roses and art and described their friend as vivacious--a woman who “would get all gussied up to walk to the market,” said Margaret Cohen, whose 92-year-old father lives next door to the victim.

“She took care of her mother until she died a few years ago,” Cohen said. “She was amazing.”

Rita was a family-oriented woman who worried about her son, Cohen said.

“She was concerned about him, his future,” Cohen said, letting her sentence trail. “She really worked hard to try and help him. She was always a mother to him.”

Until officers lined the victim’s property with yellow police tape Wednesday, neighbors said they had never seen the woman’s garden in any condition other than perfect.

“She was always cleaning,” said Alicia Castillo, 50, a live-in home care specialist for one of Cohen’s neighbors. “If there was a leaf [out of place], she’d pick it up. She never used any gardeners. She never used any lady to clean her house. She did it herself.”

Not only did Rita keep her property immaculate, but she thrived on adding delicate decorations. A pair of porcelain doves and a frolicking squirrel sit on her roof. More porcelain birds sit on a manicured tree in front of her door. And her entire house is filled with dolls, Castillo said.

An artist, Rita made many gifts for her neighbors, Castillo said, holding her porcelain ring box, on which the victim painted a precious picture of a little girl picking tulips.

“She made this for me,” Castillo said, crying and pointing to the woman’s delicate signature. “Look, see, that’s her name. ‘Rita.’ She made this.”

Castillo said she tried to emulate the artistic neighbor, planting colorful roses in the backyard to match those that surround Herber’s house.

“Yesterday morning . . . she saw the flowers,” Castillo said.

“She said, ‘Oh, Alicia, you made it so beautiful.’ I said, ‘I hope my flowers don’t die,’ ” Castillo said, pausing to remember the last words she heard her neighbor utter. “She said, ‘If you take care of them, they won’t die.’ ”