Police Say Couple’s Deaths Are a Case of Double Murder

Police are investigating the slayings of a husband and wife who were found dead early Tuesday in their Garden Grove home.

Jose R. Najera and Elena Castro Najera were found by their 19-year-old son, Jose Jr., at about 4:30 a.m. after he returned from a night out with friends. He then called police, Garden Grove Police Lt. John Woods said.

Police released few details, saying only that they are treating it as a double murder, not a murder-suicide. They did not say how the couple were killed or what they believe could be the motive.

The neat, modest neighborhood surrounding the Najera home in the 12400 block of Merrill Street was cordoned off most of Tuesday by investigators, who dumped the contents of neighbors’ garbage cans onto sheets of plastic and sifted through the piles, apparently searching for a weapon.

Outside the Najera home, concerned neighbors stood before the family’s well-tended home. The lawn, with rose bushes, also had a swing and a basketball hoop nearby. Christmas lights still festooned the garage. Several wondered aloud how such a crime could have happened to the people they say were hard-working and family-oriented.

Elena Castro Najera, 46, worked as a seamstress, and her husband, 42, was a construction worker, neighbors said. Their only son graduated from Mater Dei, a Roman Catholic high school in Santa Ana, and has applied to USC. The family attended nearby St. Columbus church, neighbors said.

“I’m totally shocked,” said neighbor Steve Starke, 35, who taught Jose Jr. to play guitar. “I never saw any trouble. Jose 1/8Jr. 3/8 would be out playing basketball with friends, and the son totally respected his parents.”

Kathy Alberti, 51, a counselor for graduate students at UC Irvine who lives across the street from the Najera home, said the Najeras were a generous family and that Jose Sr. had offered to help fix her roof.

“They seemed like an ideal family,” Alberti said. “The son would be working in the yard with his dad. . . . They kept their house immaculate.”

Another neighbor recounted how the Najeras introduced themselves by bringing over home-grown chiles. And Maurice Turpin called them friendly, but busy, neighbors.

“Between their work and my work we didn’t see too much of each other,” said Turpin, 55. “From what I understand, he works out of town quite a bit so I didn’t see too much of him. And I didn’t see too much of her because she worked double shifts.”

Describing himself as shocked by the deaths, Turpin said, “There was never any raising of voices over there or anything like that. There were other people around I would think this would happen to before them.”

Although none of the residents interviewed said they saw anything suspicious at the Najera home, a few said they heard dogs barking during the night. Neighbor Amy Dunbar said her own dogs began barking at about midnight.