Father of 3 Kills Wife, Children, Self

In an apparent murder-suicide that jolted a working-class neighborhood in the South Bay, a father of three--reportedly despondent over the breakup of his marriage--shot and killed his estranged wife and their children, then shot himself to death, authorities said Tuesday.

The woman’s brother found the bodies early Tuesday in the tiny duplex the family had rented across the street from Hawthorne High School, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detectives said.

The children--two boys and a girl, ages 4 to 13--were found in their bedroom, their bodies slumped next to one another against a wall. The mother’s body was found sprawled across a nearby bed, the father’s on the floor in another bedroom, a .357 magnum revolver beneath him. There was no sign of a struggle, homicide Lt. R. David Dietrich said.

Authorities identified the father as 40-year-old Cesar Eduardo Orantes, who had held a series of jobs as a carpenter and painter. They identified the mother as 37-year-old Julia Paniaguia and the children as Douglas Orantes, 13; Jennifer Orantes, 10; and Cesar Orantes Jr., 4.

According to Dietrich, neighbors said the elder Orantes had recently reported “having difficulty with his wife” and “didn’t know if he could take it anymore.” Sheriff’s Det. Nash Reyes said the couple had separated just three weeks ago, when she moved out of the duplex and in with her brother.

The slayings marked the latest in a series of murder-suicides in Southern California in recent months. In some of these rampages, entire families have been wiped out. Authorities have noted that such families often have been torn previously by domestic violence.

In June, for example, Clarence Ray Taylor, 42, killed his wife, daughter and then himself at the family home in Watts. Detectives said Taylor, a frontyard auto mechanic, had a history of domestic violence and depression.

In March, Javier A. Sosa, a 26-year-old tire repairman from Commerce, killed two women, seriously injured another and then killed himself--apparently because the women would not, or could not, tell him where to find his wife, who had fled from his abuse.

Deirdre Anglin, a doctor at County-USC Medical Center and an expert in domestic violence, said it’s not uncommon for murder-suicides to occur shortly after an abused spouse announces an intent to leave, or actually does so.

“The murder-suicide is usually an issue of power and control: ‘If I can’t have you, nobody will,’ ” Anglin said.

On Tuesday, relatives, neighbors and onlookers gathered outside the drab brown duplex where the five bodies had been found.

“It’s sad,” neighbor Cal Briscoe said. “I can’t believe what the world is coming to.”

The duplex fronts onto the 4900 block of West El Segundo Boulevard, a busy thoroughfare a few blocks east of the Los Angeles Air Force Base and the San Diego Freeway. Behind the two-unit brown house is a quiet, racially mixed neighborhood of single-story homes and trim lawns--a pocket of unincorporated Los Angeles County that locals call Wiseburn.

Alberto Monterroso, 54, a cousin, said Cesar Orantes and Julia Paniaguia were married in their native Guatemala, but “never got along.” Speaking in Spanish, he added: “They fought often. He was very jealous.”

When they fought, Monterroso said, Paniaguia would frequently go to her brother’s house nearby. Three weeks ago, he said, she moved there for good.

Authorities on Tuesday did not release the brother’s name.

On Monday night, sheriff’s detectives said, Paniaguia returned to the family home, apparently to visit her children.

When she had not appeared again at his house by Tuesday morning, her brother went to the duplex. There he found the five bodies, detectives said.

Dietrich described the scene: “Their heads and arms and bodies are lying on the next one in line. It’s like knocking three jars over.”

Paniaguia’s body was found on one of the two twin beds in the room. She also had been shot in the upper body.

Orantes’ body was found a few yards away, face down, at the entrance to the second bedroom in the duplex. When coroner’s investigators turned the body over, they found the revolver.

Detectives stressed that the sequence of the shootings remains unclear. But they did say that the gun was a six-shot revolver and that they found several shell casings on the floor in the duplex--meaning Orantes reloaded the gun.

Curiously, though a .357 magnum issues a loud report, neighbors said they heard nothing Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Even the two women who share the back unit in the duplex told detectives they hadn’t heard a thing.

“They didn’t see nothing, they didn’t hear nothing, they don’t know nothing,” Dietrich said.

Johanna Adams, who lives next door, ducked under the yellow police tape and away from her house, away from the crime scene--and a clutch of reporters and TV crews.

“My kids played with their kids,” she said. “I am shocked.”