Police are investigating the slaying of a man and woman, the latter of whom was reported missing to Costa Mesa police over the weekend.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department coroner identified the victims as 48-year-old Wendi Miller of Costa Mesa and 38-year-old Darren Partch of Newport Beach. The two were found in Partch’s residence, the coroner’s office reported.
Miller was last seen in Laguna Beach over the weekend. Her family contacted Costa Mesa police when they could not reach her.
The bodies were discovered about 9:30 p.m. Sunday in the residence on the 2100 block of East 15th Street near Irvine Avenue, the Newport Beach Police Department reported.
Police would only say they were “conducting an active homicide investigation,” according to the department’s Heather Rangel.
Police said there was no danger to the public as “the activity appears to be confined to this location.”
Rangel said that a man came home and found his roommate and a woman he didn’t know dead.
Miller’s son, Luke Carpenter, posted on Facebook that his mother had been shot to death and added that the family was told “she did not suffer.”
Carpenter thanked his friends “for all the prayers” and added, “please don’t stop because I feel our family needs them even more now.”
Miller was the chief executive of the nonprofit organization Wings for Justice, which aims to “protect children in the family court system by creating awareness, providing education, and advocating to bring positive change,” according to the organization’s website.
Miller’s “career includes over 25 years as a national speaker and 12 years with a psychological practice specializing in abuse and domestic violence counseling, and support groups for women and children,” according to Wings for Justice.
Miller was a licensed psychologist in California and Michigan where she counseled children, individuals, couples and families, according to Wings for Justice.
“During the last several years of Wendi’s practice, she specialized in treating victims of domestic violence and abuse,” according to the nonprofit’s site.
She wrote two books, “Betrayed Vows,” and the “Care Point Training Manual for Facilitators of Support Groups,” according to the organization.
Miller and her children “experienced severe injustice in the family court system and her children are left unprotected along with thousands of others across the country,” according to the website’s biography of Miller.
Miller received a master’s degree in counseling from Hope International University in Fullerton, where she also taught undergraduate classes, according to Wings for Justice. She received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.
Anyone with information on the killings was asked to call Detective Rick Henry at 949-644-3797.
>> Want to read more stories like this? Get our Free Daily Newsletters Here!
Follow us: