Four people stabbed to death in home, woman wounded

PICO RIVERA, Calif. - Four members of a family were found stabbed to death in their home early Friday and another was hospitalized with wounds.

A 42-year-old man, a 14-year-old girl and two boys, ages 10 and 17, were killed, said sheriff's Lt. Marilyn Baker. A 39-year-old wounded woman hospitalized. Three teen-age girls also in the house were unharmed.

Investigators were searching for a young man described by the wounded woman as a stranger who fled the Marjorie Street home in eastern Los Angeles County.

The victims were members of a household of eight. Investigators were uncertain of relationships and withheld names for notification of kin. Neighbors said the Flores family lived in the home, and that the parents were raising two nieces as well as their four children.

Baker said the victims were apparently asleep when an intruder slipped in. Deputy Carlos Lopez said there didn't appear to be forced entry, and that no scenario had been ruled out. Dogs were brought in to try to pick up a scent trail.

Blood stains indicated the father struggled, Lopez said.

The killings occurred during a heat spell and neighbors worrying about how the attack was carried out wondered if the killer had taken advantage of windows left open at night.

''I don't know if this is a Night Stalker-type thing or a gang-related thing,'' said Isidore Taoatao, 47, a longtime resident. The ''Night Stalker'' killings terrorized Southern California in 1984-85. Fourteen people were murdered during break-ins before Richard Ramirez was captured.

''This is the last time I'm sleeping with the windows open,'' said Mari Estrada, who lives a block way.

Deputies were called shortly after 3 a.m. when an 18-year-old daughter woke up and found her mother with knife wounds, said Deputy David Cervantes. The mother told her daughter to go to a neighbor's home and call 911.

On the way to the hospital, the wounded woman provided deputies a description of a young man in his 20s, clean shaven and wearing a white tank-top and blue bandanna.

The killings occurred on a street of small, well-kept wooden homes in the community of 62,000 bracketed by the dry beds of the San Gabriel River and the Rio Hondo, about 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Neighbors described a family that loved sports and participated in church and community activities.

''They were a great family, they were always just there and involved in the community,'' said Veronica Malvida, who grew up next door and returns to visit her mother. She said the children all played basketball, evidenced by a hoop and key drawn in the driveway.

The parents were raising two girls whose mother, the wounded woman's sister, had died some years ago, Malvida said.

''They always had that extra time for the children. In this day and age it's rare you find parents that still do that,'' said Diane Loera, who lives about a block away. ''How could this have happened and not anyone hear anything?''

Danielle Montoya, 10, said the 10-year-old victim was her best friend, a fifth-grade classmate who loved Rollerblading, liked spiking up his hair and would stick up for her when she was getting picked on. She said he would say, ''Don't hit her, she's a female.''

Taoatao, who has lived on Marjorie Street for 20 years, said there was a gang-related shooting about a block away last year but no other serious incident in the area.

''I grew up in L.A., where you lock your house tight all the time,'' he said. ''Here, I leave the window open with the screen on.''