66-year-old woman found dead in Laguna Beach mobile home; man arrested

LAGUNA BEACH – A 66-year-old woman was found dead in Laguna Beach on Sunday, Aug. 18 and a man described as a family member was later arrested on suspicion of murder.

A caller notified police of the discovery in a residence at the Laguna Terrace Mobile Park community, at 30802 Coast Highway, at about 10:45 a.m., Laguna Beach Police Chief Laura Farinella said.

“Neighbors heard screaming and yelling and went in to check on the woman and found her deceased,” Farinella said. “They gave us a description of a man that may have been family who had been staying with her.”

Witnesses also described the vehicle he may have been driving, and a man was pulled over by Orange County Sheriff’s deputies and taken into custody at about 12 p.m. The 34-year-old man, who had driven off in the victim’s car, was arrested on suspicion of murder, the police chief said.

The names of the victim and suspect were not immediately released. Nor were details about the death. Farinella characterized the ages she gave as approximate.

A search warrant was drafted and Laguna Beach police detectives were in the residence with the coroner late Sunday afternoon, Farinella said.

Many people in the mobile home park are closely knit, she said.

“The neighbors did a lot together with the deceased woman, Farinella said. “They had planned to go to church together this morning.”

The last homicide in Laguna Beach was in 2007, when a couple was shot and killed in an oceanfront bungalow at the Montage, where they had checked in with a semiautomatic handgun and a bag of extra ammunition.

They were killed in a confrontation with police after officers were summoned to the hotel at 7:40 a.m. by several 911 callers, who reported a naked, “crazy woman” with a gun who was threatening them in Treasure Island Park, at the southern end of the five-star resort.