Man’s Downward Slide Ended in Murder-Suicide

The downward spiral that was Glenn Brabham’s life ended with the 40-year-old Moreno Valley man killing a 15-year-old girl he was enamored with, and then turning the gun on himself, police said.

When they searched his home Thursday, investigators found it almost bare, except for his will, stuck by a magnet to his refrigerator door, La Habra Police Capt. John Rees said.

In it, he asked that his photos of his victim--Desiree Roman--be buried with him, Rees said.

Brabham met Desiree’s mother, Lea, a few years ago and became a family friend, police said. It was only recently that he started showing a romantic interest in the teen, who rebuffed his advances, police said. When she told her mother, the two confronted Brabham, who admitted that his romantic interest was improper and agreed to stop, police said.

But sometime after 1 p.m. Wednesday, he went to the Romans’ home on Derry Street, where Desiree was home alone, police said. Brabham argued with her, shot her several times in the chest and then shot himself, police said.

“He was clearly more infatuated with her than the family suspected,” Rees said.

Authorities have been sifting through information about Brabham’s background. He had a master’s degree and a job at a computer company in the Burbank area, but he quit a month ago, Rees said.

“He appears to have gone off the deep end somehow,” Rees said. “It appears this was the climax to a declining situation that had begun sometime before.”

An autopsy Thursday revealed Desiree Roman also had wounds to her hands and arms, indicating she was trying to defend herself at the time of her death, Rees said. That clinched investigators’ initial assessment that the two died in a murder-suicide, he said. “It all fits with what we believe went on.”

With that ruling, detectives have closed the case. They know who killed Desiree Roman, even if they can’t understand why, police said.

“We may never be able to explain why, but we may be able to make an educated guess,” Police Sgt. Jeff Love said.

He said he has investigated murder-suicides before, but none in which there was such an age difference between those involved. “This is in itself very unusual.”

Barbara Leon, a friend who has known Lea Roman for years, said the single mother has struggled to raise her daughter and two sons on her own.

“Lea, she’s had to fight for everything,” Leon said. “This mom didn’t raise this little girl to have some guy take her out at 15 1/2.

“It absolutely breaks my heart,” she added. “We’re not prophets. We don’t see that this person in our face has the potential to be dangerous.”

Leon, who works for Student Outreach Services in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, said Desiree Roman was completing high school through a home-study program with the county’s Horizon program.

While at home, she cared for her brothers while her 32-year-old mother worked as a reserve security guard at Fullerton College, and dreamed of becoming a police officer, Leon said.

Leon called the slain teen “a nice kid who was hard-headed and wanted her way. Which is about anybody you know between 12 and 17. [But] she was a good kid.”

To help defray the cost of Desiree’s funeral, Lea Roman’s co-workers at Fullerton College have established a fund in her daughter’s name. Donna Hatchett, spokeswoman for the North Orange County Community College District, said donations can be made to the Desiree Roman Memorial Fund, c/o the Bursar’s Office, Fullerton College, 321 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton 92832-2095.

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Steve Carney can be reached at (714) 966-7890. His e-mail address: steve.carney@latimes.com