Year Later, Killing Still Drives Family

They’ve done this before. Gone door to door, posted the $10,000 reward notices, talked to neighbors, asked if anybody saw or heard anything the morning Sunny Adrienne Sudweeks was killed in her apartment.

Each time the answers are similar: “No, we didn’t,” “Sorry, we haven’t,” “Sorry, I don’t.”

Frustration over the unsolved murder of the 26-year-old Orange Coast College student didn’t stop her family or police from trying again Monday, exactly a year after the slaying.

“You just never know,” said Sandy Sudweeks, 53, the victim’s mother. “I just want people to put two and two together or two and four together. I am doing my best to keep attention on this.”

Sunny Sudweeks, was strangled in bed, and possibly sexually assaulted, on Feb. 23, 1997, in her second-story apartment in the 1000 block of Mission Drive.

On Mission Drive on Monday, her mother, aunt and cousins, along with police, handed out neon yellow bulletins with two images of Sudweeks wearing her retro horn-rimmed glasses.

Sudweeks, a photography major, was smiling in both shots.

“Unfortunately, the more time that passes, the chances of successfully solving the case decrease,” said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Ron Smith, who joined Monday’s effort. “Of course this is the anniversary, and we hope we’re going to find somebody or something.”

Jen Linton, 17, Sudweeks’ cousin, drove with her sister and mother from Denver to help.

“We didn’t get to come out last year when it happened, and now we’re getting to know what happened last year,” Linton said.

Police ask that anyone with information call (714) 754-5281.