Newport Beach double homicide remains cloaked in mystery

Newport Beach police said Tuesday, April 23, that they hope to make an arrest in the case of two people found slain in a home across the street from Newport Harbor High, but they declined to provide a name or description of a suspect and repeated that the public is in no danger.

“It’s an active investigation. I can’t get into the specifics of the case in order to maintain the integrity of the investigation,” department spokeswoman Heather Rangel said. She reiterated that police consider this a double homicide and not a murder-suicide.

Asked whether the department expects to make an arrest, Rangel said: “I certainly hope so.”

So for now, the case sounds like a paperback murder mystery: a man and a woman of an unknown relationship, found dead in the man’s apartment, doors locked and no sign of forced entry. Police are not describing what type of weapon was used to kill Wendi Miller, 48, and Darren Partch, 38. That information will come from the Orange County Coroner’s Office, Rangel said.

A man who returned to his home in the Villa Siena complex at 2101 E. 15th St. Sunday night said he found two bodies. The coroner’s office said Miller was found at 8:25 p.m. and Partch, who lived there, was found at 9:25 p.m.

Miller had been missing since Friday, said friends and family who took to social media in hopes of tracking her down. Relatives said she was last seen at a restaurant and lounge in Laguna Beach. On Monday, Miller’s son, Luke Carpenter, confirmed reports of his mother’s death in a Facebook post and said she had been shot.

Miller, of Costa Mesa, was a psychologist who specialized in treating victims of domestic violence and abuse. She was the CEO of Wings for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on issues affecting children in the family court system.

Partch was a former minor-league hockey player whose 13-year career ended in the 2005-06 season with the San Diego Gulls of the ECHL. He played for the Long Beach Ice Dogs in the 2003-04 season in the same league. Partch led the Ventura Mariners to a junior league championship in 1999, scoring 63 goals with 69 assists, a Los Angeles Times story said. Partch was recently working for Advanced Financial Services in Irvine.

Messages left with family members and friends of the victims Tuesday were not immediately returned.