Authorities trying to confirm identity of Temecula shooter

“I love my mom! She’s the coolest ever,” Nikita Williams wrote on her Web page. “My mom is truely who i look up to.”

By all accounts, Naomi Grangroth was a hardworking single mother devoted to her 15-year-old twin daughters. Her hope, she told friends, was to raise them to become responsible, churchgoing adults.

On Tuesday, however, friends and relatives were struggling to understand how this 34-year-old mother’s dream could have ended so suddenly, and so violently.

Grangroth, Nikita and her sister Narissa, died Sunday at a Temecula house -- apparent victims of a murder-suicide shooting that took the lives of five people on a quiet, cul-de-sac. Also found dead were Grangroth’s boyfriend, Jeffrey Blixt, 45, and his 17-year-old son, Matthew.

Authorities are still trying to determine who fired the gun that killed all five people in Blixt’s home near Temeku Hills Golf and Country Club. Sheriff’s spokesman Dennis Gutierrez said news reports indicating Matthew Blixt was the shooter “can’t be confirmed at this time.” Autopsies will be performed today or Thursday and could reveal who the killer was.

Meanwhile, news of the deaths reverberated Tuesday from Temecula to Desert Hot Springs as friends of the victims came to grips with their loss.

“The senseless loss of life which occurred on Sunday . . . has been tragic for both students and staff of the Temecula Valley Unified School District,” a school statement said. “We are deeply saddened by the news that two of our students . . . were victims of a murder.” The girls’ mother, who was employed by Barnhart Construction of San Diego, worked on building projects at Great Oak High School in Temecula, where her daughters were sophomores.

“Naomi was a field engineer for us and was an extremely hard worker and a very popular employee,” said Tami-Barnhart Reese, marketing and communications officer for Barnhart Construction. “She was very focused and committed to her two daughters. Everyone is shocked and thinking about her and her family.”

Matt Sherman, youth minister at the Rock church in Murrieta, said the twins visited the church twice a week and were a memorable presence there.

“They were extremely happy and joyful and always wanting to serve and wanting to help,” he said. “They were joined at the hip. Their mom was their best friend and she knew everything about them. They had built a very strong relationship with God and really wanted to be in God’s presence.”

Grangroth had rented a house in a walnut grove near a pond in a rural part of Temecula. The house was padlocked Tuesday. She had just one neighbor, who didn’t answer the door. A groundskeeper at a mansion nearby said he knew the girls but not well.

Internet postings provided an intimate snapshot of the girls’ hopes and peeves.

On pathconnect.com, Nikita Williams listed her passion as motocross. Other interests included dance, music, the beach and the mall. She predicted that by the time she was 18 she would “have accomplished school and will have my own business.” She also described a very close network of friends.

“My mom and my friends are my hero,” she wrote. “They are always by my side helping me through tough times and giving me [advice] on guys and life.”

Narissa listed Nikita, her mother and her friends as her heroes. “My life is pretty normal. I live in the wine country. I love my friends to death. School is fun to an extent,” she wrote in her Web profile. “I dislike teenage drama, it gets bad at our school. But anyways, my mom is soon to be a regional director.”

In Desert Hot Springs, on a quiet street with mountain views, neighbors of Matthew Blixt’s mother -- Jeffrey Blixt’s first wife -- were shocked by news of the shooting.

They said Matthew’s mother, listed in court records as Deborah Blixt and known as Deb, and her children had lived in a brown stucco house for several years and often stopped to chat with neighbors as they walked their dog in the evenings. Darrel Nystrom, who lived down the street, saw Deborah Blixt on Tuesday morning as she drove away from home looking distraught.

“They were very nice neighbors, very sweet people,” said Nystrom, who added that Deborah Blixt has a much younger daughter in addition to the two older children. “I’m just devastated. I can’t believe [she] is in this trouble.” Fernando Beltran, another neighbor, said Matthew seemed like a typical 17-year-old who was more withdrawn than other members of his family.

“He was a weird kind of guy; he wouldn’t talk much with people,” Beltran said. “It was very hard to make communication with him.”

Matthew Blixt was enrolled in the school district’s general equivalency diploma program.

Neighbors described Matthew’s sister, Danielle, who was not harmed in the shooting, as an athletic high school student often seen jogging in the neighborhood. Danielle may have been present in the house at the time of the shooting, but sheriff’s officials said they could not confirm that.

Jon Caffery of Palm Springs, who has known Deborah and Jeffrey Blixt since the early 1980s, said friends couldn’t imagine anyone in their family turning a gun on another.

“They are good people,” said Caffery, who first met Jeffrey Blixt on a retreat with their Palm Springs church, Calvary Chapel. “It’s just a total shock. I don’t know what happened.” When he first met Blixt, both were budding small-business owners. Blixt had started one of what would be a series of companies, including moving and golf cart-repair businesses.

“He was always excited about the new venture,” Caffery said. “He did whatever it took to take care of his family.”

Blixt, who recently separated from his second wife, had declared bankruptcy in 1998 and again in 2005.

Recently he had expanded his moving business nationwide, and the long trips were hard on him because they kept him away from his family, Caffery said.

He said he was puzzled by news reports that Matt was upset over his father’s dating life. “Jeff and Debbie have been divorced for several years,” he said.

Caffery said he had not seen Matthew in several years but that the youth liked to ride motorcycles with his dad in the desert. “He was a typical teenager,” he said.

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maeve.reston@latimes.com

david.kelly@latimes.com