Teen, Woman Found Slain in Home

A 15-year-old girl and a 26-year-old woman were found shot to death in their Riverside home Tuesday night in what police say may be drug-related slayings.

A 5-year-old girl also inside the residence was unharmed, police said.

“We’re looking for some vehicles that frequented the house,” Riverside police spokesman Felix Medina said. “We don’t think it was a forced entry, and we haven’t ruled out that it was a result of drug activity, but the motive is still being investigated.”

Sgt. Steve Johnson, the lead investigator in the case, said police are seeking two males for questioning.

“Neighbors reported suspicions of drug activity, and that is part of our investigation,” he said. “There is a strong indication there was drug activity in that house, but at this point, we don’t know if [drugs and the slayings] are associated.”

Authorities provided few other details about the deaths of teenager Katie Brennan and Michelle Robidoux. Kevin Brennan, Katie’s father, discovered the bodies and ran to a neighbor’s home; a 911 call was placed from there about 10 p.m. Tuesday night, police said.

As the police investigation continued Wednesday inside the single-story home on the southeast corner of Jurupa Avenue and Streeter Avenue, north of the Magnolia Center area, several neighbors said they have been troubled for months by suspicious activity near the residence. Many said that they believed it was drug-related.

Kevin Brennan’s oldest child, Sean, 26, is serving a two-year term in state prison after pleading guilty in Riverside County Superior Court on Oct. 22, 2002, of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to sell it. The guilty plea was a violation of his probation after he pleaded guilty in November 2001 to a felony of possessing a controlled substance for sale.

Robidoux was Sean Brennan’s fiancee, said her mother, Yvonne Forand of Dunnellon, Fla. Brennan and Robidoux were the parents of the 5-year-old girl, she said. Forand said the older of Robidoux’s two children, a 10-year-old boy, lives with her in Florida.

“I think what happened to Michelle was a result of drugs,” Forand said. “As a matter of fact, as I sit here thinking about it, that’s what I know this was.”

Forand said a Riverside police detective told her Wednesday that officers were “getting close” to apprehending the suspects.

May Cook, who lives across the street from the Brennan home, said she walked the 5-year-old girl home about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The girl had been playing at Cook’s home with her child, Cook said.

“The mother [Robidoux] came outside to tell me thank you,” Cook said. “About 30 minutes later, I heard some commotion, like yelling, but I didn’t want to go outside and be nosy. I guess I should have been nosy.”

Kevin Brennan sat outside his home Wednesday, fighting tears. In response to his neighbors’ comments about the killings possibly being related to drug activity, he said, “I don’t know. I have no idea. Why don’t you let the police answer your questions?”

Neighbors described Katie as outgoing, saying she frequently sat in a blue and yellow rocking chair in the frontyard, chatting on her cell phone and waving to neighborhood boys.

Forand said Robidoux was “the type of person everyone liked. She bent over backward, trying to help all the people she could, and she loved her kids.”