Mother found shot had lost custody of girls

December 15, 2009 7:46 AM

SAN CLEMENTE - As investigators piece together what led to the shooting deaths of a grandmother, her daughter and two granddaughters inside a million-dollar home Monday, court documents show that the mother had lost custody of the two youngest victims hours before the violence shattered a gated community.

Investigators still don’t know which woman carried out the suspected murder-suicide, but each of the four died from a single gunshot wound, said Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The girls’ father was ruled out as the killer, he said.

Found dead behind a front door decorated with a Christmas wreath, their bodies intertwined in the entryway of the home of a friend where they were staying, were Catherine Fontaine, 4, and Julia Fontaine, 2.

Also found dead were Elizabeth Fontaine, the girls’ 38-year-old mother and a patent attorney, and Fontaine’s mother, Bonnie Hoult, 67, a retired psychologist.

The four bodies were found so close together it was impossible to tell who fired the fatal shots, Amormino said. Forensic testing will hopefully lead investigators to a conclusion, he said.

The four recently had moved to Texas from Orange County last month, and were in town for a child custody hearing.

An attorney for Howrey, LLP’s Irvine office, Elizabeth Fontaine filed for divorce last December. About a month ago she left Orange County and moved her daughters and mother to Houston, Tex.

But the move didn’t end the constant grappling with her ex-husband, Jason S. Fontaine, of Irvine over custody of their girls.

In court documents, Elizabeth Fontaine made explosive accusations against him, claiming he had molested the girls and had an addiction to pornography.

A court psychologist interviewed Catherine, documents show, but didn’t see enough to find that molestation had occurred. There was a four-day hearing in August on whether Elizabeth acted in good faith in making the accusation.

Ultimately, a court commissioner sided with Jason Fontaine on the issue, allowing him unmonitored visits, even as he awarded primary custody to Elizabeth. The divorce was granted in October.

No molestation charges were ever filed against Jason Fontaine.

Commissioner Thomas Schulte also allowed Elizabeth to move to Houston with her daughters, although he expressed concern that Elizabeth would try to re-open the case in a Texas court. She did exactly that.

A day after moving to Texas, Elizabeth Fontaine took her oldest daughter to be examined by a psychologist, who reported finding evidence of molestation, court documents show.

Within two weeks, a Texas court ordered that Jason Fontaine not have contact with his daughters. He accused his wife of court-shopping, and Schulte ordered her to bring her children back to California for Monday’s hearing.

Elizabeth’s new accusations came with four experts affirming that Catherine had told them of a long list of specific abuses.

At the 9 a.m. hearing in Orange County, Schulte ordered that temporary sole legal and sole physical custody of the girls be granted to a maternal aunt in Texas. He also ordered that the girls be put on the 3:30 flight to Houston out of John Wayne Airport on Monday.

The girls were already dead by the time the plane took off.

Reached by phone about the deaths, Jason Fontaine didn’t want to talk.

“I think I’m just going to say no comment to everything right now,” he said.

His attorney could not be reached for comment.

WEATHERING THE STORM

Kevin Herbert and his wife, Leslie, lease the home where the bodies where found, on Calle Sonador in the upscale Talega neighborhood of San Clemente.

The Herberts used to be neighbors with Elizabeth Fontaine, her mother, and her daughters in Aliso Viejo, where Hoult owned a condo. When she left her husband, Elizabeth moved her daughters from the family’s Newport Coast home into her mother’s condo.

Heath McBurnett, a former neighbor of the Fontaines on Napolitos Way, said he sometimes would see Jason Fontaine come by to visit the kids.

He said Elizabeth didn’t talk much about Jason.

“She just talked about normal divorce stuff,” McBurnett said. “She never really talked about what they were going through.”

According to neighbors, Kevin and Leslie Herbert were at the home with the two women and the two girls shortly before the violence erupted.

The Sheriff’s Department’s Amormino said a man who said he was the renter of the home called 911 around 1:30 p.m. Monday.

“He was concerned about the children’s welfare,” Amormino said. “He had learned something. I’m not sure what it was. It did raise a red flag for him.”

Alarmed, Kevin Herbert told his wife to leave the house and pick up their son, Parker, 3, from preschool, according to a neighbor, Rebecca Vandehei. Then he soon left and called authorities.

When deputies arrived at the house seven minutes later, the four bodies were found on the marble floor of the hallway.

Herbert visited his home late Tuesday morning with a sheriff’s investigator and walked out several minutes later holding personal items.

He declined to comment on the situation that left four dead and his family without a home.

Authorities said deputies have never been called to the house before, and that they have not found any previous calls that may have hinted to Monday’s events.

The five-bedroom home, with more than 4,800 square feet of space, last sold in 2006 for about $1.7 million, according to records.

Monday’s investigation was the first homicide investigation in San Clemente since May 2008, where a family of five was also involved in a murder-suicide.

Authorities in that case said two twin daughters and their grandmother took a lethal dose of medication before their mother shot their father and herself. The motive for those deaths, investigators said, was still unclear.

From: http://www.ocregister.com/news/home-224204-amormino-investigators.html