Arrest Ends Hunt in Fatal O.C. Stabbing

A woman sought in the Friday fatal stabbing of a Mission Viejo teenager and the wounding of his father was arrested in San Juan Capistrano on Saturday evening after a security guard found her dazed and bloodied on a city street, authorities said.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies captured Tamara Kay Bohler, 44, a former jail inmate who is suspected of killing Alex Weber, 13, and injuring his father, Jean Marc Weber, 45, inside Weber’s condominium on Devonshire.

Jim Amormino, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said Bohler was arrested shortly after 8 p.m. outside the Villas condominium complex in the 31400 block of Los Rios after a guard saw her sitting on a curb.

The guard noticed her hands were badly cut and that she was disoriented, Amormino said. The guard contacted paramedics, who recognized her when they arrived and immediately contacted the Sheriff’s Department.

Amormino said Bohler was booked into Orange County Jail, but charges were pending Saturday night. He added that Bohler would be treated for her injuries.

Bohler, who once dated and lived with Weber, fled from the home on foot leaving a 3-mile trail of blood, apparently from wounds suffered in the attack. Dogs tracked the drops from the condo complex south to the entrance to the Shops at Mission Viejo, a mall off Crown Valley Parkway, where the trail abruptly ended.

Weber, who dragged himself to a neighbor’s home for help, was admitted to the intensive-care unit at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Hospital officials said he remained in serious condition Saturday.

Weber has been an executive chef for 13 years at the California Club, a private social establishment in downtown Los Angeles. He also has worked at what is now the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach, the Mondrian on the Sunset Strip and Excelsior in Beverly Hills.

Bohler was released from jail as early as June 20, authorities said, but they declined to say where or why she was incarcerated. She reportedly returned to Weber’s neighborhood late last week.

When Bohler and Weber dated almost two years ago, neighbors said, she did not get along with Alex, who argued with her that she was trying to act too much like a mother to him.

In a statement handed out to reporters by a friend, the Weber family described Alex as a “sweet” boy, who “held the heart of an angel.” They said the 6-foot-1 youth “loved skateboarding, bicycling, and like all 13-year-olds hated to take out the trash.”

“We are grieving deeply over the loss of Alex, an incredible boy, a beautiful person and greatly beloved son,” stated the handwritten note.

Alex looked up to his 16-year-old sister, Sara. Both were living at their mother’s house in Mission Viejo. When Sara awakened on Saturday, she said her thoughts turned to her brother. They had become so close the past two years. He was almost old enough to ask Sara about girls. His sister said he never got his first kiss.

Sara recalled that when they would go shopping, he would sometimes point to clothing and ask, “Is this cool?” Once he asked to tag along to a movie with her and her boyfriend. “I was like, ‘whoa, maybe another time,’ ” she said, cracking a smile.

The pair would spend weekdays with their mother, Diane Weber, at her brown, two-story home, with its backyard of roses, ivy and towering trees.

Weekends generally were spent with their father, who, Sara said, was “just someone you want to hang out with.”

She recalled that she and Alex were never fond of Bohler, adding that she tried to avoid her father’s house when Bohler was there.

“She was really, really self-centered,” Sara said. “You’d tell her something, like a story, and she’d say, ‘Oh, I did that too.’ ”

Her father and Bohler had spats, and Bohler might pull him aside to “cuss him out,” Sara said. Bohler also became livid, Sara said, when Weber’s parents asked him not to bring her to regular dinners they had for the children and their son.

Four or five months ago, Sara said, Bohler showed up at Weber’s house. The children had not seen her in months, she said, and Weber was dating someone new.

Sara learned about Alex’s death Friday morning from her mother. She “just hugs me,” said Sara, adding that it took several minutes for both to stop crying and stop shaking. She wondered whether Bohler might hurt them or where Bohler was.

“I just want to know what happened,” Sara said. “If you know, you give your head a break and you can think about the good things.”

Outside her mother’s garage, a neighbor rested a white rose, a white teddy bear and a card with a picture of an angel. “We miss you, Alex!” was printed in green marker on a piece of paper. The “i” was dotted with a heart.

Diane Weber said she was too overwhelmed by Alex’s death to talk much about him. She pointed to a black-and-white picture of Sara and Alex hanging on the living room wall.

“You eulogize him. You eulogize my sweet son,” she said. “He was stabbed.”