Lake Forest Man Dies in Stabbing

A woman returning home late Sunday from a walk in the park found her husband stabbed to death in the entryway of their Lake Forest home, police said.

The man, who had survived a similar stabbing attack in April, was a self-employed cement worker identified as Francisco “Chico” Naranjo, 42. Police said he had declined to help them with their investigation into the earlier attack.

After taking a stroll to nearby El Toro Park with her mother, daughter and two grandchildren shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday, Maria Naranjo returned to their home on La Rosa Drive and found her husband lying face down in a pool of blood. Several rooms in the house had blood on the walls and other signs of a struggle, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Maria Naranjo ran across the street to a neighbor’s house screaming, neighbors reported.

“A neighbor called 911,” Amormino said. “It was obviously a homicide, with numerous stabs to his upper torso.”

There was evidence of a struggle in the living room and a hallway, he said. The fight ended near the front door. There were no signs of a forced entry.

Moments before Naranjo’s wife returned home, neighbors reported seeing the victim’s 1986 Toyota pickup truck driving down the street.

“The two things that were really strange was that it was going really slow, and the alarm was going off,” said Lorena Iraheta, who lives several houses from the Naranjos.

The truck was later found abandoned nearby, Amormino said. Police spent all day Monday interviewing friends, family and neighbors on La Rosa Drive, but at day’s end said they did not have a suspect or motive for the killing. They are looking closely into the earlier stabbing.

On the night of April 10, Naranjo’s wife found him on his bed bleeding from stab wounds. He survived but would not cooperate with investigators, Amormino said. “He wouldn’t tell us who did it.”

Janice Evans has lived on La Rosa Drive most of her life and said that until last April’s attack, the friendly neighborhood street was very quiet. She expressed surprise that Naranjo, who had lived there with his wife, a 4-year-old grandchild from an adult son, an adult daughter and her 4-month-old baby for about a year, survived his previous attack only to die from another one months later.

“He pulled through,” Evans said. “It was amazing. I guess they came back to finish the job.”