Stabbing Victim’s Car Found in Nevada; 2 Teens in Custody
LOS ALAMITOS — Two teenagers were in custody Saturday after police in Nevada found them sleeping in a car missing from a Los Alamitos home where a 62-year-old woman was found stabbed to death a day earlier, police said.
The teens--one of them a relative of the victim and a lodger at her home--were found about 3:30 a.m. sleeping in the silver 1990 Toyota Camry that belonged to Jean E. Richards, found stabbed in the back Friday morning, police said.
Investigators from the Los Alamitos police and Orange County sheriff’s departments traveled to Nevada on Saturday to question the two teens, but the minors were not charged as of Saturday night, Los Alamitos Police Capt. Arl L. Farris said. The teens were not identified because of their age.
Criminalists continued to comb Richards’ home Saturday for evidence. Neighbors called police after noticing a shattered window at the house in the 11900 block of Paseo Bonita and the absence of the car from the victim’s open garage. Officers found Richards inside, near the front door, Farris said.
Police had responded to several “domestic situations†at the home in recent months, including one Wednesday, and investigators did not believe the stabbing was a random or stranger crime, Farris said. The victim’s husband died two years ago of natural causes, and she was living with a young female relative, neighbors said.
Officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department were conducting a traffic stop about 3:30 a.m. Saturday at Nellis Boulevard and Stewart Avenue in the eastern side of the city when they spotted the missing car, according to a spokesman with that agency.
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