Crowd Mourns Slaying Victim

More than 500 people gathered at a small Camarillo church on Sunday to pay final respects to 20-year-old slaying victim Megan Barroso, who was remembered as a kind woman with a warm smile and an infectious laugh.

Mourners who attended the afternoon memorial service at Peace Lutheran Church heard about the life of the Moorpark College student who was shot to death last month as she drove home from a Fourth of July party.

There have been no arrests, but authorities said their investigation is focused on Simi Valley rape suspect Vincent Henry Sanchez. He was recently charged in sexual assaults on nearly a dozen women in that city over the last five years.

Sheriff Bob Brooks joined dozens of family members and friends at Sunday’s service. The overflow crowd filled the church and an annex where the hourlong ceremony was displayed on three large television sets.

Red roses, white carnations and yellow daisies adorned both rooms, along with small baskets with sympathy cards addressed to Barroso’s parents, Suzan and Art.

On the top step near the altar was a small urn with Barroso’s ashes. Nearby hung a tapestry with a blue butterfly. A collage of snapshots of her faced the crowd in the annex.

“You would not be here unless, in some way, she touched your life,” said the Rev. Jerry Ester, whose daughter was a friend. Barroso lived with the Ester family for more than two years.

Ester, of Hacienda Heights, urged the congregation to rejoice in Barroso’s life and not to dwell on the violence and “senseless loss.”

Ron Gross, the father of another of Barroso’s friends in Newbury Park, spoke tearfully of a young woman who not only befriended the family but spent time getting to know Gross’ elderly mother and taking walks with her.

Viqui Denman, a former co-worker at a Westlake Village temp agency, remembered her friend as “a remarkable and endearing . . . spirit.”

At one point during the service, Barroso’s younger brother, A.J., stepped to the dais and talked about his strained relationship with his sister. He said he felt it ironic that his sister died before he did.

“We really didn’t like each other,” he said. “But I think it’s unfair that Megan’s gone. . . . God made a mistake and took the wrong Barroso.”

He credited his sister with being friendly during tough times, including their parents’ divorce.

The Rev. David Boyd of Irvine later told the crowd, and A.J. specifically, that it is natural to “recoil at the horror” of killing.

Mourners left the church by a small stairway between two rows of Irish dancers, each in traditional dress and holding an empty pair of dancing shoes to represent a missing dancer.

More than 10 years ago when she lived in Camarillo, Barroso danced with this group, called Claddagh Dance. Although she left after about three years, she never took off her heart-shaped Claddagh ring, a gift from her mother.

“I felt proud of myself for raising such a good, kind girl,” Suzan Barroso said after the service.

Barroso’s ashes will be interred at a family plot in Wisconsin.