O.C. Woman Kills Son, 11, Self, Police Say

Police believe an Anaheim woman distraught over financial woes killed her 11-year-old son before taking her own life an hour later by stepping in front of an oncoming train.

The mother, identified as 47-year-old Rose Hooper, was last seen pulling away from her Anaheim home in a white van about 4:30 p.m. Friday, neighbors said.

It was the home she was forced to share with her estranged husband because of financial problems, neighbors said. Her husband, whom a neighbor identified as George Hooper, returned home from work about 6 p.m. Friday to find his son dead in the bedroom, police and neighbors said.

Police would not say how the child was killed. But late Friday night, investigators were going door-to-door, asking neighbors if the mother seemed depressed or despondent in recent days, several neighbors said.

“Is it possible? Could she have done that? I hope not, God I hope not,” said one neighbor who declined to reveal her name.

As of 9 p.m. Friday, investigators had not confirmed that the body found on the tracks less than half a mile away in Orange along Orange Olive Road was Hooper’s, but authorities said they had reason to believe it was.

“The timing is right,” Anaheim Lt. Jack Parra said.

But Parra said authorities had reservations, in part because they did not immediately find Hooper’s vehicle in the area, leading to questions about how the woman traveled there.

Late in the evening, a law enforcement helicopter equipped with a searchlight was hovering in the sky above the railroad tracks as detectives shuttled back and forth between the two scenes.

A MetroLink spokesman confirmed that a MetroLink train struck a woman in Orange who died at the scene, but said he could not identify the woman.

The accident occurred about 5:50 p.m. in the city of Orange as Train No. 806 traveled from Irvine toward San Bernardino.

The woman was standing on the tracks when she was hit, said Francisco Oaxaca, senior administrator for public affairs at MetroLink, a commuter rail service.

No one was injured aboard the train, which was delayed for about 90 minutes. The crew asked to be relieved of duty for the remainder of the trip, Oaxaca said.

Kim Meyers, who lives next door to the slain child’s home, said Rose Hooper had confided in her recently about her mounting financial difficulties.

Money woes forced her to take up residence again with her husband--from whom she had been separated--in the 100 block of North Merrimac Drive, just west of where the Costa Mesa Freeway merges into the Riverside Freeway, she said.

Before moving to Anaheim last fall, Hooper and her son had been living in Fountain Valley, Meyers said.

Each day, the mother would drive her son back and forth to school in Fountain Valley, because she did not want to put him in a new school mid-term, a neighbor said.

Just recently, Hooper’s employer had cut back her hours, leaving her with less income and more time spent at home worrying, Meyers said.

Meyers said she and Hooper had talked several days ago about looking for temporary work together.

Police said they have reason to believe that after killing her son, Hooper traveled to the area where Santa Ana Canyon Road intersects with the railroad tracks that run along Orange Olive Road, and violently ended her life.

Few neighbors on the suburban cul-de-sac knew Hooper or her husband, although many said they often saw her coming and going with her son, and added that she seemed like a normal, doting mother.

“She was always going someplace with that kid. I never saw her without him,” said Susan Torrente, who lives across the street.

Stacie Mihm, who lives upstairs from the Hoopers, said the child was a happy youngster who enjoyed riding his bike and playing computer games with his father.

“That boy was Rosy’s life,” said Mihm, who expressed shock over the situation. “He was everything to her.”

While a number of children live on the street, neighbors said, they had never seen Hooper’s child--a brown-haired, skinny youngster--playing among them.

Another neighbor, Taggert Roberts, 28, who lives at the end of the cul-de-sac, said he was arriving home about 4:30 p.m. when he passed Hooper’s departing van.

He didn’t notice anything unusual, except that he had to pull over to the side because the woman appeared distracted and was driving down the middle of the street.

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Emily Otani.