Vigil Is Tribute to Slain Youths

More than 100 friends and neighbors of three children shot to death by their father over the weekend gathered Monday for an emotional candlelight vigil at the Buena Park mobile home park where the children lived with their mother.

“Oh, my babies, my beautiful babies,” Wendy Vernon sobbed in the arms of her pastor. “Not my beautiful babies. I want to touch them. I want to hug them. I want to hold them.”

Todd Vernon shot his children -- Amber, 12, and twin 10-year-old boys, Matthew and Robert -- Saturday while they were staying with him at his Santa Clara home. Vernon also killed his second wife, Nadine Nunes Vernon, before killing himself.

Neighbors on Monday described the three children as the kind of kids one would want as one’s own.

“They were wonderful,” said David Emerson, 48, who lives four doors from Wendy Vernon at Buena Park Manor. “They were among the best-behaved kids in the park. They were always cheerful -- if they had to take the trash out, they’d all take it out together. If you could choose your children, these would be the kind of kids that you’d choose.”

Said Marie McNaughton, whose daughter, Cathy, played on a Little League team with Amber: “They were great, really nice kids. They were well-mannered, good in school and always happy. They were really exceptional. This is just devastating -- it makes you want to hold your kids close.”

Angela Taylor, principal of Corey Elementary School, said the children had never spoken of their father. “I have no idea what happened,” she said. “It’s just tragic.”

Amber had graduated from the school last year, and the boys attended there this year. All three were excellent students, Taylor said, as well as talented athletes who were popular with their peers. “They had it all,” she said. “Amber was a sweetheart, like a little mother -- a sweet, kind, wonderful good girl. The boys were handsome and one was on the student council. They were well-rounded, super children who sparkled. This is a terrible loss to our school.”

Grief counselors were on campus all day Monday, Taylor said. “Some of [the other students] are having a difficult time of it,” she said. “It was so sad to see the boys’ empty desks today. But it’s pretty wonderful to see this community pulling together.”

Indeed, on Monday night people seemed to be streaming out of nowhere with candles and flowers in hand. While some signed their names and wrote condolence notes on a large wall-mounted card, others fashioned an altar under pictures of the children on a poster bearing the words “Always love and remember.” Soon, the altar, behind which Wendy Vernon sat with family members and her pastor, was strewn with flowers, stuffed animals and candles.

The pastor, Don Harberty of the New Beginning Free Will Baptist Church, said a fund will cover the children’s funeral expenses. The funeral, he said, would probably be Friday.

“I haven’t slept in days,” Wendy Vernon said to no one in particular. “I don’t know if I could have gotten through even these couple of days without all this support.”

As friends and family members helped her back to her home, she started sobbing uncontrollably again.

“I don’t want to do this,” she said through the tears. “Oh, God, I just want them back.”