You don't read a sentence like this very often: A 71-year-old woman is facing a murder rap and being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail in the fatal shooting of her 96-year-old mother.
Christine Reynolds and her mother Gretchen DeStefano apparently had some kind of domestic dispute before the shooting that was reported around 4:20 p.m. Thursday in a residence at 11272 Wallingsford Road, Rossmoor, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Deputies and Orange County Fire Authority paramedics arrived to find the 96-year-old woman dead from an apparent gunshot wound.
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Reynolds was detained at the home and a handgun was recovered, according to Lt. Jeff Hallock, the sheriff's spokesman.
The daughter is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. But the investigation continues, and anyone with information that can help is asked to call the Orange County Sheriff's Department at 714.647.7044 or 714.647.7000.
Anonymous tips may also be left with Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS) or via occrimestoppers.org.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.