As friends lit candles and shared memories, just a block away detectives and L.A. coroners finished up investigating and photographing the scene and moved Courtney and Vicki’s bodies to the coroner’s van to be transported to the L.A. County Coroner. TV cameras from local news stations lit up the block with cameras and packed the streets with news vans, hoping to transmit the feed for live coverage.
For many young friends, Courtney’s death was not the first young life taken in Redondo Beach. Llast month, 19-year-old Priscilla Ruiz was killed in a head-on collision just blocks from the scene of Tuesday’s crime.
“It’s just so unexpected to get murdered in your own home,” said Brandi Metsker, 18. “You wouldn’t think it would happen to anybody you know.”
Everybody remembered Courtney as an outgoing, happy person.
“Courtney had a hard life with her mom,” Kali Steeneken, 19, said. “Some of the things her mom did really affected their friendship.”
Gronski remembered the trouble at home, but also remembered a different part of Courtney’s personality. “No matter what was going on at home she was always bubbly,” she said.
Courtney, a graduate of Redondo Union, was working at the Cheesecake Factory and helping out with bills at home. Vicki was a recent employee at T.J. Maxx.
“She was a sweet girl. Nobody deserves this,” said Hutchinson. “She was getting stuff on track and her relationship with her mother was going really well.”
