Librarian’s Kindness May Have Led to Her Murder, Police Say : Violence: Woman was a friendly, open person, neighbors say. Three teen-agers whom she befriended are in custody in the stabbing death.

Meta Frances Murphy was known for her kindness. Police said she may have died as a result of it.

From cats to kids--and their parents--the 62-year-old librarian opened her doors to others in her Northridge condominium complex, neighbors said. “You have to be an idiot not to like her,” said neighbor Gitta Ruivenkamp, who knew Murphy for three years. “She was very nice and open and friendly.”

Murphy, who lived alone, made friends with three teen-age sisters who lived next door. She often invited them into her home, serving them dinner or a snack after school while their parents were at work, neighbors said.

The three sisters, whose names have not been released, on Friday were charged with stabbing Murphy to death last fall.

Each of the girls--ages 17, 16 and 13--appeared in Sylmar Juvenile Court on Friday and denied a charge of murder--the legal equivalent of pleading not guilty in a higher court. All three were being held by juvenile authorities pending a hearing Thursday.

If the sisters are unlikely murder suspects, then Murphy was an unlikely victim--a cheerful woman who befriended residents of the Peppertree condominium complex, occasionally sharing her Christian Science faith.

Neighbors described the girls’ family as very religious, but boisterous. The family’s activities, which often included playing loud music, led at least one neighbor to believe that two families lived in the four-bedroom condo. In fact, it was just the girls, their parents and two other siblings.

They made a loud counterpoint to Murphy, who filled her apartment with books and magazines which she, befitting her profession, lent out. A recurring memory of Murphy, neighbors said, is of her sitting in her patio quietly reading.

The two older girls attended a continuation high school while the youngest went to Topeka Drive Elementary School, police said.

Ruivenkamp’s 14-year-old daughter, Gila, said the two younger daughters occasionally bullied smaller children but never acted especially violent. She recalled how the 16-year-old once pushed another child off his bike and the 13-year-old, while roller skating, deliberately knocked down a smaller child as she went by.

“They were just little things,” Gila Ruivenkamp said. “I thought it was kind of rude, but I never thought they were people that would do something really bad.”

Murphy was a familiar figure in the sprawling complex at Mayall Street and Reseda Boulevard. Many saw her feeding her two cats along with cats belonging to other residents, including the girls accused of killing her.

“She loved her cats, and would talk about her cats and trips she would take,” said Frank Navarro, a librarian at the Panorama City branch where Murphy worked. She had worked in the library system for about 20 years, 10 years at that branch.

Last Nov. 21 another friend of Murphy’s told Ruivenkamp that the librarian had not reported to work. They walked to Murphy’s home and entered through an open patio door after knocking at the locked front entrance. They saw bloodstains in the main room but did not see her body. They fled and called police.

Police found Murphy’s body covered with five coats in a closet. She had been beaten and stabbed 11 times in the back, police said. There was no evidence of forced entry or robbery.

Police had no clues in the case until last week when two teen-agers came forward and said the girls had bragged about the killing about a week after it happened.

The elder Ruivenkamp said the slaying changed the neighborhood.

“It’s not the same for any of us. . . . Every time I walk by Meta’s home I feel creepy,” she said. “I look at her patio and think: ‘Meta, how did this happen to you?’ ”