Lived Alone : Brutal Slaying of Woman, 85, Stuns Friends

PARAMOUNT —  Mike Bardales knew something was wrong when he found the untouched Meals on Wheels food tray on Frieda Stucky’s front porch--a plastic container of cooked corn, a can of grape juice and a carton of milk.

As he circled the house on East Racine Avenue, Bardales’ concern for his neighbor deepened. He discovered water spraying from a broken pipe. Then he saw the smashed kitchen window.

Fearing the worst, Bardales crawled through the window to search for Stucky, an 85-year-old widow. Seconds later he found her body on the dining room floor.

‘Just Laying There’

“She was just laying there,” Bardales said. Her throat was slashed and she had been stabbed repeatedly in the stomach.

“It looked like she put up a little fight, because of all the things scattered on the floor,” said Bardales, who called sheriff’s deputies Friday.

Sheriff’s investigators theorize Stucky was killed sometime Thursday night in a robbery attempt when she apparently confronted the intruder after being awakened by strange noises, possibly the kitchen window breaking. The resistance she offered, deputies said, was only token because of her failing health, particularly a bad hip that made even walking difficult.

The brutal nature of her death shook the neighborhood, her friends and leaders of the city’s sizable senior citizen community; 15% of the population is over 55.

Bardales, 21, went out the next day and bought a pit bull named Rocky to protect his family next door.

“They say the area’s getting real bad. I believe it,” said Bardales’ mother-in-law, Virginia Sausedo, who lives with Bardales. “I see the police zipping down the block and helicopters flying over all the time.” Only a few feet away, Bardales demonstrated his new security system--a growling and wildly barking Rocky.

Although sheriff’s deputies who patrol the neighborhood say crime in the area is no worse than in other parts of Southern California, many residents interviewed along East Racine contend it has worsened recently. They said there is a growing gang and narcotics problem in the area.

Stucky’s best friend, Lita Berve, 80, broke into tears when she arrived at Stucky’s house and saw the sheriff’s sign--indicating a criminal investigation--on the front door.

“It was Frieda, wasn’t it?” Berve asked desperately as she rushed toward Sausedo. As Berve collapsed into Sausedo’s arms, she said: “She always called me her little sister. She wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

Several miles away at the Paramount Seniors Center, where Stucky went for years for lunch and companionship, the center’s director, Carolyn Ellis, shook her head and said:

“It’s shocking. She was probably defenseless. It’s hardly the kind of news to start the new year. But what can you do? If someone wants to get in they will.”

Sausedo said her neighbor lived in constant fear of being attacked.

“She used to have me park my van in her driveway, so people would think a tough man lived there,” Bardales said.

Neighbors described Stucky, whose only son lives in Arizona, as warm and caring. “Some old people can be grumpy, but not her,” Sausedo said.

In recent months, a worsening hip had kept Stucky from venturing beyond her front yard without assistance. She stopped going to the seniors center about two years ago.

Her link with the outside world was neighbor Clarence Payne’s family.

‘My Wife Helped Her’

“I used to take Mrs. Stucky to the store,” Payne said. “My wife helped her, giving her baths . . . and my grandson used to cut the lawn for her.”

In return, Payne said that Stucky once offered to fly him back to Missouri to visit his ailing brother. “She was just as good-hearted as she could be,” said Payne, who added he declined to accept the trip.

“It was heartbreaking for (the killer) to pick an 85-year-old woman who couldn’t even defend herself,” said one of Payne’s daughters, who refused to identify herself out of fear of retaliation from Stucky’s attacker.

Stucky was buried New Year’s Eve day at Inglewood Park in Inglewood in a simple service, with only a few friends and family members present.