Ex-Boyfriend Shoots Woman, Grandfather, Then Self, Police Say

A 22-year-old man killed his former girlfriend and her grandfather Sunday afternoon at the Santa Ana mobile home park where they lived, then fatally shot himself in the head, police said.

Witnesses told police that shortly after 1 p.m., William Farley Stovall III of Seal Beach screeched to a stop in front of the home on Lake Grove Drive in the Lake Park mobile home senior community, off West 1st Street.

Witnesses say they heard loud voices before Stovall shot Robyn Clay, 22, and Allen Jake VerSteeg, 67. Stovall then turned the weapon on himself.

“He had been trying to get back with her for two or three months . . . and that culminated tonight when he showed up here with a large-caliber semiautomatic” weapon, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Raul Luna.

Stovall entered the house through a rear door and confronted VerSteeg; his wife, Shirley; and at least one friend in the living room, Luna said. Stovall demanded to know where Clay was, but they told him to leave. He went to the back of the house, where he kicked in the young woman’s bedroom door and found her.

“She sees him and runs out a side door that leads to the front porch,” Luna said. “The suspect chases her and shoots her. Her grandfather comes out the door. He’s shot. He’s wounded and able to make it in through the frontdoor. He collapses in a hallway leading from the living room to the bedroom.

“The suspect then turns the gun on himself and shoots himself in the right temple” on the porch.

Luna said five to seven shots were fired in all. Two struck the young woman, and one her grandfather. One bullet lodged in a bookcase, and one was found across the street.

Tim Palomares said he was in the alley between the senior community and a shopping center when he heard four gunshots in quick succession, then a muffled shot. Palomares rode his bicycle to the neighborhood, where he saw paramedics carrying an unconscious woman out of the house.

Clay was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she was declared dead shortly after arrival. VerSteeg was found dead in the house, and Stovall’s blood-covered body was found on the porch.

Police talked to witnesses Sunday afternoon. “Everybody’s very traumatized,” Luna said.

Neighbors were shocked.

“I can’t believe Jake’s dead. Oh no,” Laurel Walden said. “This is dreadful.”

Walden’s late husband, Dan, and VerSteeg were close friends. Dan Walden died from lung cancer about a year ago, and VerSteeg visited him up until the very end.

“They were truly good friends,” she said. “Jake was lovely. I can’t think of a better man that I know.”

Elvira Capo has lived at the mobile home park since it opened in the mid-1970s. The VerSteegs “are really nice,” she said. “We want to have something done, they come and help us.” She said that since she broke her hip, Allen Jake VerSteeg helped her with heavy packages.

Richard Cano of Sherman Oaks was visiting his 63-year-old mother at the mobile home park when he heard gunshots. He said gunshots are common in this part of Santa Ana, but not in the fenced mobile home park.

“There are gunshots all the time. You take it for granted around here,” he said. “But this is just too close to home.”

Cano worried how he would tell his mother, Helen, about the slayings. “I’m afraid to tell her. She just moved here,” he said.

The VerSteegs have lived in the mobile home for about two decades. Clay lived with them.

Clay’s silver Volkswagen Jetta, with a license plate holder that said “Girls Will Be Girls, Boys Will Be Toys,” was parked behind her grandfather’s van in the driveway. The shooter’s large white pickup truck was parked hastily in front, blocking the driveway. Large shell casings littered the street.

Sunday’s double-killing-suicide is not the first grisly crime at Lake Park. In 1999, a 61-year-old amputee was found shot and stuffed into his closet, and his live-in caretaker later shot herself in the head. The caretaker’s estranged husband was charged with the elderly man’s murder.