Slaying Victim’s Sister: ‘There Is No Closure’

When her sister was found murdered four years ago, Debbie Torrez’s life changed.

“I was at a very young age. My life did a 360-[degree] turn. Life came and hit me like a big semi-truck,” said Torrez, now 17 and a Valencia High School senior.

Cathy Torrez was 20 years old when she disappeared on her way home from work in 1994. Her body was found in the trunk of her car in the parking lot of Placentia Linda Community Hospital. A suspect was arrested, but the district attorney’s office has declined to file charges, citing insufficient evidence.

Debbie Torrez, meanwhile, has worked to overcome that blow and has become an achiever in her school and in her community.

For the past two years, she has been captain of the Placentia Police Explorers Post and this year became Valencia High School’s student body president.

She is also a tutor, giving up her lunches three times a week to help other students with reading, writing and math. Torrez also helps to resolve conflicts between students on campus.

“I’m very proud of her,” said her mother, Mary Bennett. “She’s quite grown up for her age. She’s assumed her role in the community and in school to do what she is inspired to do.”

Educators and others call her a natural leader.

“She’s a very determined person, and I think she has a lot of intelligence beyond her years in the way she sees things, the amount of responsibility she takes on, and how hard she’s willing work to get what she wants,” said Becky Marchant, Valencia’s dean of students-counselor.

Torrez’s interest in law enforcement was sparked after meeting detectives handling the murder case of her sister, and she joined Explorers.

“I’m glad she was able to start with our program, which was kind of the nucleus to what I’ve seen happen to her over the past three years,” said Officer David Douglas, Explorer Post advisor.

Torrez said she is supportive of efforts by police and sheriff’s deputies to find her sister’s killer, and deeply disappointed that no one has been charged.

Being involved in Explorers has given her the chance to give something back to the community that helped her family when her sister disappeared, Torrez said.

“When my sister was missing, the whole community helped,” she said.

Last month, Torrez was also selected as one of the first three Placentia Youth Ambassadors to represent the city. She also was recently named homecoming queen.

Torrez said her sister, an honor student at Cal State Fullerton, had inspired her to be involved in school and to take her studies seriously.

Torrez, who wears a gold locket with her sister’s picture, said she still has “peaks and valleys” in dealing with Cathy’s death.

“I have to deal with a big part of my life that is missing,” Torrez said. “It’s like a big void in my life. There is a big open wound, because there is no closure.”