Teller’s Slaying Shocks Community

One glance was enough to know that something had gone horribly wrong Monday at Western Financial Bank. In the parking lot, onlookers pointed and gawked. Helicopters buzzed overhead.

Inside, FBI agents, sheriff’s deputies and coroner’s officials scoured the bank for clues in a senselessly brutal holdup that left a vivacious, 39-year-old mother of two dead.

Police were still searching late Monday for the two male robbers who took over the bank at 2920 Thousand Oaks Blvd. about 10:20 a.m., snatched an undisclosed amount of money and shot teller Monica Lynn Leech in the back of the head execution-style. Authorities describe the holdup as chillingly cruel--Leech was kneeling and handcuffed when she was shot.

“There was no provocation whatsoever for this shooting,” said Chief Deputy Robert Brooks of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

While authorities searched for clues, family and friends mourned the loss of the bubbly, woman with an open smile and long reddish-brown hair. And Thousand Oaks residents searched for meaning behind the brutal slaying that devastated one of the nation’s safest cities over 100,000 population.

In the Mission Oaks area of Camarillo, where Leech lived, neighbors remembered the teller as a kindhearted volunteer who was active in the Camarillo Church of the Nazarene. She lived on Willow View Drive with her husband, Floyd, and her two children from a previous marriage--Andy, 13, and Stephanie, 8.

“She was such a sweet thing. This just makes my heart drop,” said neighbor Roberta Dillon, 74, who has known Leech for four years. “That poor thing. She just didn’t have a chance.”

Eve Geohagen, 56, who lives next door to the Leechs, would occasionally baby-sit Leech’s children. “The woman was just as kind as could be,” she said. “She was just a nice lady to talk to.”

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Monica’s parents, Al and Elaine Cavaletto, spent Monday evening at their Somis home with friends and family, including their daughter’s two children.

“They’re staying with us right now, but we don’t know where they’re going to be staying the night,” Al Cavaletto said.

Church of the Nazarene Pastor Bob Hislar stopped by to comfort the family.

“He just came by to soothe us, make us feel good, make the children feel good,” Al Cavaletto said.

According to her father, Leech had a caring nature.

“I was always getting compliments about her from people who did business at the bank,” he said. “She was kind to everyone, all the people that went to the bank.

Church members described Leech’s children as exemplary, and said Andy was recently named Child of the Year by the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club. Monica Leech often helped out at Sunday school and other church functions, they said.

The director of the church’s children’s ministries, Kristin Simmons, looked to God for answers to the tragedy.

“The saddest part to me is that the news is showing Monica coming out of the bank and being put in the coroner’s van,” Simmons said. “The nicest part is that the whole family is Christian. We know where Monica is, and she knows [God’s] whole plan.”

In Thousand Oaks, employees of the shops in the Western Financial Plaza were clearly rattled by the day’s events. From the shopping plaza to City Hall, city residents mourned the Leechs’ loss. Even those who hadn’t met the victim knew the pain of security lost.

At the plaza, the tuxedo shop manager, the mystery book store owner and the temporary agency employees quietly asked each other: How could this happen here in Thousand Oaks, one of the country’s safest cities? Isn’t this where Angelenos move when urban living gets too gritty?

“This isn’t supposed to happen anywhere, but especially not in Thousand Oaks,” said Nancy Nuciforo, bookkeeper at the Thousand Oaks Boulevard Napa Auto Parts store, two blocks away from the deadly holdup. “We’re used to seeing this on TV in L.A. But Thousand Oaks has always been a really safe community.”

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Residents wondered aloud whether the gunmen were out-of-towners drawn by Thousand Oaks’ seeming torpor. Many speculated that the two bandits were emboldened by the recent bank shootout in North Hollywood.

Mayor Judy Lazar said she was appalled by the tragedy, which was Thousand Oaks’ first homicide of the year.

“I know the residents of this city are going to be shocked by this, and frightened by this, and rightfully so,” said Lazar, who vowed to ask the City Council to post a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the killers. “This crime is not a bank robbery. This crime is a murder.

“This is the kind of thing we try hard to prevent in our community, but it is the kind of thing that happens near the freeway offramp,” she added. “Any bank near a freeway is going to be a target.”

Beyond the flapping yellow police tape at the scene, children craned their necks for a peek inside the bank. People from across town gathered and held cameras aloft, straining for a photograph. At the Sheriff’s Department Mobile Resource Center, weary deputies stood in the shade and drank bottled water.

Among the onlookers was Frank Lussier.

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The 55-year-old Lussier began his day with a trip to the chiropractor’s office to work out the kinks after Conejo Valley Days, where he was chairman of off-site events. When a screaming person rushed into Atlas Chiropractic, Lussier and chiropractor Rick T. Swartzburg sprinted to the bank next door.

Lussier saw Leach’s body in a pool of blood. With a handcuff key he said he carries for safety reasons, he freed another bound teller.

“It was absolutely senseless,” he said. “Where are you safe today? A small town? A big town?”

Standing before a rack of Oscar de la Renta tuxedos at the nearby Tux-n-Tails, Heather Pina recalled waving to Western Financial’s tellers in the parking lot some days. She had considered transferring her checking account to the bank because of its proximity and the friendly service.

“When I pulled into work, there were cops with shotguns everywhere,” she said. “I’ve worked in this plaza for two years and the only problem we’ve had are a few homeless people asking for money.

“Now, I don’t feel unsafe, exactly, but insecure, a little. . . . I wouldn’t want to be left here alone.”

At Remedy Intelligent Staffing across the plaza, sales representative Ken Arancibia thought Thousand Oaks’ sleepy image may work against it.

“It’s one of the safest cities in America, but that’s what makes this area vulnerable, because people know it’s a quiet bedroom community.”

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Looking up from his desk toward the frenzied parking lot, he sighed, “Awww, God, did they have to kill her?”

Surrounded by stacks of colorful hardbacks at the Mysteries to Die For bookshop, owner Audrey Moore was upset.

“Needless to say, it’s very disturbing,” she said. “What kind of animals are getting into our city?”

Working to soothe and comfort witnesses and friends of the victim, a red-jacketed chaplain from Ventura County Fire and Rescue went from store to store.

But there was no one to comfort Jorge Cristobal, who lives in the old neighborhood just behind the shopping plaza.

“This is a quiet neighborhood, without much violence,” he said during his lunch break from a car-detailing job. “Now I’m a little scared to leave my wife and daughter.”

Folmar is a Times staff writer; Steepleton and Arevalo are Times correspondents. Staff writer Miguel Bustillo contributed to this story.

FYI

Anyone with information about the bank robbery is encouraged to call Ventura County Crime Stoppers, which will pay up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects. The caller may remain anonymous; the call is not recorded. The phone number is 494-TALK in Thousand Oaks and Moorpark or 987-TALK in the west county.

Police Sketches of Bank Robbers

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies interviewed several eyewitnesses Monday afternoon. Because of conflicting descriptions of the two bank robbers, artists prepared three separate sketches of the two men. Deputies declined to specify which sketch matched which suspect. The sketches show a man seen inside the bank, a man seen outside the bank, and a man seen in the getaway car.