Rewards Are Offered in 2 Santa Ana Slaying Cases

In hopes of finding the alleged killers, families of three victims killed in two separate slayings pleaded on Monday for the public’s help, and Santa Ana police announced rewards.

In the most recent slaying, Nicolas Casas, 83, and his wife, Emilia, 73, were found stabbed to death in their 9th Street home Dec. 29. Police said that the home was ransacked but that nothing was taken.

A man described as a Latino in his early 20s, about 140 pounds, with a thin build and dark complexion was seen leaving the home about half an hour before the couple’s bodies were found by one of their daughters.

“Someone who walks the streets now, violently tore our family apart, brutally murdering two defenseless people who should have died of old age after having spent many more years with us,” their daughter Emma Lozano said.

The motive for the slayings was unknown, police said.

“It’s not right for someone to come into our home and tear apart our family like they did,” said Elva Morin, another daughter.

The second slaying for which police are seeking help occurred on Christmas Eve 2003.

Estella Garibay, 29, a seamstress, was strangled in the apartment she shared with her husband, Miguel Angel Martinez, and four children, in the 900 block of Brook Street.

Garibay and Martinez, 33, a security guard, argued before Martinez left the house, authorities said.

Garibay’s oldest son, David, 10, found his mother’s body.

Authorities said Martinez fled in a car with his brother, Jaime Martinez Escobar, who is wanted on suspicion of being an accessory to murder. Arrest warrants have been issued for both men, who are believed to be in Mexico.

Family members have not yet told the children -- ages 10, 5 and 6-year-old twins -- that their mother is dead.

“They keep asking when she will come home from the hospital,” said Elizabeth Arvizu, the victim’s niece. “It’s very hard for us to tell them.”

A $5,000 reward has been offered in each case by the Carol Sund/Carrington Memorial Reward Foundation, which has helped locate 23 murder suspects and one child molestation suspect since it was founded in 1999.

Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters said his department had already received many tips. All tips can be given anonymously.