Daughter, Boyfriend Held in Family Killings

A 16-year-old Pico Rivera girl and her high school boyfriend face murder and attempted murder charges in the fatal stabbings of the girl’s adoptive father and three of her siblings and the wounding of her adoptive mother, allegedly committed because her parents disapproved of their relationship.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide detectives arrested the girl and her boyfriend Wednesday night, six days after the attack that left suburban Pico Rivera shocked and frightened.

Sheriff’s officials said the girl, identified by friends and neighbors as Monica Diaz, had raised the suspicion of detectives with her account of the night of the attack.

Forensic evidence, including blood and fingerprints, ties her to the slayings, authorities said. The teenager had said she hid in a bathroom after hearing a stranger’s steps in the house.

Killed in the bloody attack were Richard Flores, 42; his son Richard, 17; his daughter Sylvia, 13; and his son Matthew, 10. Sylvia Flores, the 39-year-old mother, survived the attack but remains hospitalized. Two other 18-year-old daughters, Esperanza Flores and Laura Reta--Diaz’s half sister--were uninjured. Diaz and Reta are nieces of Richard and Sylvia Flores, adopted more than a decade ago after their mother died in a car accident.

The district attorney’s office could file murder charges as early as this afternoon. Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti told a Thursday news conference that the two probably will be tried as adults.

Both teenagers were described by friends as good students who took honors classes and had enrolled in ROTC courses at El Rancho High School. They had been dating for at least a year and had become inseparable, often seen at school holding hands or with their arms wrapped around each other.

The boy was identified by friends and relatives as Michael Naranjo who, along with Diaz, had just completed his junior year at El Rancho. He was arrested at his home in Pico Rivera, not far from the Flores home. Diaz was arrested at a relative’s home in La Puente.

Some high school acquaintances and neighbors gathering late Wednesday outside the Pico Rivera sheriff’s station saw Diaz, wearing a ponytail and an oversize jacket, turn her face away as she was being taken to a juvenile facility. Some shouted, “It’s Monica!” and “Oh my God, it’s her!” witnesses said.

Both teenagers are being held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said forensic evidence points to the young couple as the killers and it appears that they were both involved in the fatal stabbings.

High school students who knew both teenagers said the two had complained that Richard and Sylvia Flores were too strict. One friend said Diaz had wanted to go away for the weekend with her boyfriend, but her father had said no.

Another friend said he heard Richard Flores complaining about Naranjo’s appearance. The 17-year-old dressed in Goth-style clothing: black T-shirts, black pants, black boots, spiky hair and a tight, silver chain around his neck. Sometimes he wore a black trench coat.

Sheriff’s officials said they are still trying to piece together the motive for the stabbings. But law enforcement sources said they believe the young couple chafed under the parents’ rules. Apparently, Richard Flores never approved of any of his daughters’ boyfriends.

The Floreses were known in the community as a close-knit, sports-loving family that attended Sunday Mass at St. Hilary Catholic Church. Richard Flores was an involved father who coached youth baseball and basketball teams. The family was often seen together in gymnasiums and parks. Neighbors called their beige minivan “the team bus.”

The July 21 killings shook Pico Rivera, scaring residents into keeping their doors and windows closed and locked despite the warm summer weather. A memorial service Sunday night drew more than 1,200 mourners, Monica Diaz among them.

The arrests were announced to a group of about 150 residents attending a counseling session Wednesday night at Pico Rivera City Hall. The mood in the room immediately lightened as residents clapped, cheered and exchanged high-fives.

Sheriff’s officials said they believe that Diaz and Naranjo planned the murders and that Diaz left the back door of the house open for her boyfriend. Sheriff’s detectives found a bloody knife outside the back door and other weapons in the home.

“It looks to me like they had put some thought into this,” said one Sheriff’s Department source. “Definitely, some advance thought went into it.”

Detectives also found a flashlight in the house. A search warrant served at Naranjo’s home when he was arrested turned up other important evidence, including weapons, sheriff’s sources said.

No one answered the door at the Naranjo home Thursday afternoon. Neighbors said Naranjo was the youngest of three siblings, and his parents were very protective and strict with their children.

Classes at El Rancho were interrupted Thursday so teachers and students could watch TV coverage of a midmorning news conference about the arrests.

Naranjo’s school friends said he sometimes talked about his knife collection, but they said he did not seem violent. Rather, they described him as a devoted boyfriend. He and Diaz often waited for each other outside class, walked together from class to class and kissed goodbye. They ate lunch together.

They appeared more recently to be withdrawing from their social circle, leaving behind groups of friends to be alone.

“It was like they were in a little bubble together,” said Justin Reyes, 17, a classmate. “They spent all day talking to each other. . . . They went out alone.”

Both were described as good students. Naranjo has a 2.7 grade-point average and Diaz’s is similar, according to El Rancho High Principal Julie Ellis.

“When we worked in groups, he was the one you wanted to work with; he knew a lot of the answers,” said Ralph Abundes, a classmate who sat next to Naranjo in biology last year.

Neither student had any record of disciplinary problems, Ellis said, all the way back to kindergarten.

“We’re beginning a process of examining ourselves and looking for any warning signs we might have missed,” Ellis said. “That’s why I didn’t sleep last night. Could I have seen something like this coming?”

Friends and neighbors said it would have been extremely difficult to predict.

“I refuse to believe it,” said Sophia Steger, another classmate. “These are not people who would hurt anyone. Why would she do this to her own family?”

That is a puzzle that homicide detectives are trying to piece together. They provided few details at the news conference.

Most of the Flores children were active in sports. Esperanza Flores was a star volleyball and basketball player at El Rancho High before entering the University of La Verne last fall, where she played on the women’s basketball team.

Sylvia Flores was a rising sports star. She played on three teams this summer, scoring the last shot in a basketball game the night she died. Matthew Flores played Pop Warner football.

Diaz was on the junior varsity basketball team at El Rancho last year but either dropped out or was showing up less often at practices, friends said.

Sylvia Flores was the only surviving victim who saw the attacker, as she woke up when she was stabbed. Her husband, a purchasing agent for Architectural Woodworking Co. in Monterey Park, fought the assailant before dying.

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Times staff writers Antonio Olivo and Manuel Gamiz Jr. contributed to this story.