Mission Viejo Couple Slain

Acting on a query from concerned church members, police found a retired aerospace engineer and his wife apparently beaten to death in their Mission Viejo home Thursday morning.

The bodies of Ray and Pauline Mingus, ages 69 and 74, were found by Orange County sheriff’s deputies about 11:30 a.m. Thursday after members of the nearby Mount of Olives Lutheran Church reported they had not seen the couple for several days, Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

The slayings were the first homicides in the largely middle-class suburb since 1997. There have been only eight killings in Mission Viejo since 1990, according to police crime statistics.

Sheriff’s deputies found the couple’s battered bodies inside their single-story, white stucco house on Matias Drive, near La Paz Road and Muirlands Boulevard. Amormino said the couple may have been dead as long as two days.

Police said they want to interview the couple’s son in connection with the deaths.

“He’s not a suspect,” Amormino said. “He’s wanted at this time only for questioning.”

The son, who lives in San Diego, had been staying at his parents’ home temporarily, Amormino said.

Ray Mingus was a retired aerospace engineer, and his wife looked after several children in the couple’s home, neighbors said.

James Downey, who lives a few doors away, said some of the children were from a family that belonged to Mount of Olives Church, where the couple attended services every Sunday. Apparently, police were called after the children’s mother became concerned, he said.

Downey said he believes the couple had at least one other child, a daughter living in Japan.

Police were seeking the couple’s 2000 white Honda hatchback, license plate 4LLN770.