2 Roommates Shot to Death in Santa Ana

A woman and her roommate were found shot to death early Tuesday in the Santa Ana apartment they shared on North Grand Avenue, police said.

Stephanie Larkin, 30, had been shot “multiple times” and was found in her bed, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Steve Despenas. The roommate, Derek Mattingly, 28, was found in a chair in the living room. Each had been shot in the head, police said.

“The place doesn’t appear to be ransacked, nothing appears to be missing and we don’t have a motive at this time,” Despenas said.

Detectives initially suspected the deaths were a murder-suicide, but no weapon was found in the two-bedroom unit. They later determined that both victims had been shot more than once, Despenas said.

Police were called to the scene Tuesday morning by an employee of the Orange County Register, where Larkin worked. When she didn’t show up for her job in the classified advertising department, a supervisor walked across the street to check on her about 9:15 a.m., officials said. The door to her end-unit apartment was ajar, so he went inside, Lt. Dave Petko said.

“He discovered the bodies and ran back to the paper to call for help,” Petko said. The supervisor took Larkin’s Labrador with him. Larkin, who was disabled, had used the dog to assist her in daily chores.

The four-year employee of the Register was recently honored by the paper for achieving 109% of her sales goals, said Peggy Castellano, vice president of human resources.

“It’s really unfortunate, a real tragedy,” she said.

Carlos Sandoval, who manages the North Grand Avenue apartment building with his mother, said Larkin moved in about a year ago and told them she would be living there alone. She indicated that the apartment “was perfect” for her because, being in a wheelchair, she wanted to be close to her job, Sandoval recalled.

“She was quiet, very apart from everybody else here,” he said. “We could see her every morning, wheeling herself across the street to [the paper].”

About three months after Larkin signed the lease agreement, a man moved in with her, Sandoval said. She introduced him as her brother and said he would be staying with her for a while.

“We never questioned whether it was really her brother or a boyfriend instead or something,” he said. “I don’t even remember her saying his name.”

Sandoval and other neighbors said they heard a pounding noise from Larkin’s apartment shortly after 5 a.m., but none believed the sound was gunfire.

Jose Luis Diaz, who lives in the unit next door, said the noise came three times, as if someone had dropped something.

“I didn’t think it was a gun, no, not at all,” Diaz said. He thumped a balled fist on the wall of his living room. “That’s what it was like.”

No arrests had been made late Tuesday.