Homicide in GT...

First homicide in Grand Terrace in nearly two decades
Stacia Glenn, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/13/2009 06:15:25 PM PDT

GRAND TERRRACE - Park managers making their rounds Monday morning found a 63-year-old man slain behind his mobile home.

It is the first homicide the sleepy city of 12,500 has had in more than 20 years, officials said.

Coroner's officials have not yet identified the man, whom neighbors knew only as Tom.
Park manager John Haning and a maintenance man were doing monthly rounds to check on meters inside the Grand Royal Estates on Newport Avenue when they came across the body about 9 a.m.

Sheriff's detectives immediately cordoned off the victim's mobile home and began questioning neighbors and collecting evidence.

The county's chief medical examiner, Frank Sheridan, was called out to inspect the body.
Homicide Sgt. Frank Montanez declined to say how the man was killed. No arrests have been made and no motive has been established.

It is unclear exactly when the victim was killed.

Park managers and neighbors said the victim's son also lived in the mobile home. Detectives have been unable to find him.

Neighbors recalled Tom as a quiet, polite man who didn't go out much unless it was to his job. He was often seen sitting on his front steps smoking cigarettes.

Sabine Ooms, who has lived next door for seven years, said she saw Tom about 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

"He was sitting on the steps on the phone, smoking a cigarette," Ooms said. "That's what he did every night."

Neighbor Eliseo Franco, who moved his family here from Pomona two months ago, could only recall seeing the victim step outside to smoke from time to time.

"Other than that, he keeps to himself," Franco said.

He said he has seen a black Cadillac owned by a Latino man in his 30s parked outside the victim's house recently, but was unsure whether it belonged to the victim's son.

The only vehicle parked at the victim's home Monday was a tan Saturn.

On the three front steps were an empty glass with a cigarette stubbed out in it, a pack of GT-1 cigarettes and a white house telephone.

Acting City Manager Steve Berry said he was so stunned when he heard about the homicide that he drove out to the mobile home park.

"This is our first homicide in over 20 years," Berry said. "We are one of the safest cities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. This was a shocker."

Sheriff's investigators said the last known homicide in Grand Terrace was a child abuse case in 1991. Records dating back farther than that were not immediately available.

Anyone with information is asked to call sheriff's homicide Sgt. Frank Montanez at (909) 387-3589.