Slain Woman Was Target of Harasser, Husband Says

VILLA PARK —  Weeping at the memory of his slain wife, Danny Pang said Saturday that he and his family had moved into the tranquil hills of this town two years ago to start a new life after a series of disturbing incidents and harassing phone calls.

On Wednesday, three days before Danny and Janie Pang were to fly to Hawaii for a romantic getaway, the two were rattled again. Someone vandalized a car in their driveway while Danny Pang was out of town on business.

Pang and his wife decided to install surveillance cameras in their yard, but they never had the chance.

On Friday around noon, 33-year-old Janie Louise Pang was slain at home by a man who authorities say knocked on the front door, entered and apparently shot her dead. Her body was found in an upstairs bedroom.

On Saturday, the Sheriff’s Department released a sketch of the suspect.

The slaying fell on the Pangs’ fourth wedding anniversary and left three children motherless, the youngest 6 years old.

“My wife, she’s the best wife, the best mom, you could find,” Danny Pang said in a tearful interview at the home of his friend and attorney. “The love she had for me, I don’t even know how to describe it.”

The vandalism raised concerns, Danny Pang said, because Janie Pang in past years had been repeatedly bothered by a man who would not let her alone. Without elaborating, Pang said his wife had obtained a court order in 1993 barring the man from contacting her.

Pang and his attorney, Bill Baker, said they had forwarded information about the harassment and vandalism--including a 20-page report from a private investigator--to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which is in charge of the case.

Saying they did not want to impair sheriff’s investigators, Pang and Baker were circumspect in their account of what Janie Pang had experienced and stressed that they could not make any direct link between the harassment and the slaying.

Asked if Janie Pang had been stalked, Baker said: “That’s the word I would use.” Danny Pang added that the couple had frequently been forced to change their home phone number at a previous residence in Huntington Beach. A few weeks ago, there was another suspicious call at their new home, he said.

As of Saturday, authorities had made no arrests in the slaying and no announcements about possible motives. In releasing the sketch of the suspect, investigators described him as white, 35 to 40 years old, 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall, with a medium build, smooth complexion and a dark, thin mustache. They said the killer was wearing a business suit. Anyone with information is asked to call deputies at (714) 647-7055 or (714) 647-7370.

Lt. William Francis of the Sheriff’s Department said Saturday evening that he could not confirm what Pang and his attorney related in the interview. But he said, “We’re leaving nothing unturned.”

Pang, 30, a venture capitalist who is a native of Taiwan, said he had returned to Orange County from San Francisco on Friday afternoon after his mother paged him and told him there was bad news. Pang said his mother, who lives nearby in Orange, learned of the slaying when she drove by the house to check on her grandson and found the place shuttered by investigators.

On Saturday, a portion of Crestview Circle was still cordoned off as forensic experts scoured the Pangs’ two-story house for clues. On the front lawn just behind the yellow tape, someone had left five bundles of long-stemmed roses in tribute to a woman who had a passion for the flower.

Janie Pang was so zealous about roses, her husband said, that she had carefully transplanted rose bushes over the years from a family home in Whittier to subsequent Orange County homes in Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach and Villa Park.

Born in West Covina, Janie Pang was also a dedicated school and community volunteer and skilled in hand crafts such as macrame, her husband said. She helped nearly every day in their son’s kindergarten class at a parochial school in Tustin.

Janie Pang also had two children by a previous marriage, a son now 17 years old and a daughter 13. They lived with their mother. Danny Pang said he was on friendly terms with his wife’s ex-husband.

The youngest child was at home Friday when the assailant knocked on the door. A maid spirited him and another young child from the house after hearing a shot, police said.

Danny Pang said religious faith is helping his son. “At least he knows his mother is in a happier place,” the father said. “But still once in awhile, he says, ‘I miss Mommy. I want to see Mommy.’ ”