"I love my mom! She's the coolest ever," Nikita Williams wrote on her Web page. "My mom is truely who i look up to."
By all accounts, Naomi Grangroth was a hardworking single mother devoted to her 15-year-old twin daughters. Her hope, she told friends, was to raise them to become responsible, churchgoing adults.
On Tuesday, however, friends and relatives were struggling to understand how this 34-year-old mother's dream could have ended so suddenly, and so violently.
Grangroth, Nikita and her sister Narissa, died Sunday at a Temecula house -- apparent victims of a murder-suicide shooting that took the lives of five people on a quiet, cul-de-sac. Also found dead were Grangroth's boyfriend, Jeffrey Blixt, 45, and his 17-year-old son, Matthew.
Authorities are still trying to determine who fired the gun that killed all five people in Blixt's home near Temeku Hills Golf and Country Club. Sheriff's spokesman Dennis Gutierrez said news reports indicating Matthew Blixt was the shooter "can't be confirmed at this time." Autopsies will be performed today or Thursday and could reveal who the killer was.
Meanwhile, news of the deaths reverberated Tuesday from Temecula to Desert Hot Springs as friends of the victims came to grips with their loss.
"The senseless loss of life which occurred on Sunday . . . has been tragic for both students and staff of the Temecula Valley Unified School District," a school statement said. "We are deeply saddened by the news that two of our students . . . were victims of a murder." The girls' mother, who was employed by Barnhart Construction of San Diego, worked on building projects at Great Oak High School in Temecula, where her daughters were sophomores.
"Naomi was a field engineer for us and was an extremely hard worker and a very popular employee," said Tami-Barnhart Reese, marketing and communications officer for Barnhart Construction. "She was very focused and committed to her two daughters. Everyone is shocked and thinking about her and her family."
Matt Sherman, youth minister at the Rock church in Murrieta, said the twins visited the church twice a week and were a memorable presence there.
"They were extremely happy and joyful and always wanting to serve and wanting to help," he said. "They were joined at the hip. Their mom was their best friend and she knew everything about them. They had built a very strong relationship with God and really wanted to be in God's presence."
