Death of Sandra and Rafael Urdaneta, 1991 in California

[Erato]

I am looking for any newspaper account of the death of Sandra Urdaneta on 3/4 July 1991 in Santa Barbara, California.  This is listed online as a shooting death and her husband, Rafael Urdaneta, also died that day so he was probably involved in the same incident.  She was born Sandra Leeds Kerr in Orange County, California in 1945; Rafael was born 1938 in Germany.

http://earonsgsk.proboards.com/thread/789/1972-goleta-beach-night-murder?page=3

[Lisa in California]

I've not found anything yet.  I've been searching the archives for the LA Times
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/advancedsearch.html

Providing the article would have been in the LA Times:
it may not state their names
they may have passed away a couple/few days after the incident
the incident could have occurred in a different city that Santa Barbara and they could have passed away in Santa Barbara

Will continue to have a look.

[Lisa in California]

It appears that there wasn't an obituary in the LA Times:
http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/obit-search_soundex.html

Perhaps a newspaper article might yet be found.

[Erato]

Thanks for looking, Lisa.  The California death index has both deaths recorded on 4 July 1991 in Santa Barbara County.

[Lisa in California]

Nothing helpful, unfortunately.

It appears that the Santa Barbara News-Press ran an article about unsolved killings, which appears to be identical to the list of names that is from your link.  I cannot see the entire article, but it is probably just the list.   
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Search/results.jsp

I don't know if anyone at the Santa Barbara Library Reference Desk could be of help (budget restraints may prevent them from helping):
http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/lib/locations/contact.asp
Perhaps they may be able to find an article in one of their newspapers?  If you are not living in the states, it wouldn't hurt to mention that - they may try a little harder to be of assistance since you can't get there in person.     I've found that library staff is generally very helpful and they try to find answers for people.

[Erato]

Thanks again, Lisa.  I'll give the library a try.  Strange that a violent death [very possibly two] got so little newspaper coverage.  I figured maybe the victim(s) wasn't immediately identified but I can't find anything for an unidentified shooting victim, either.

[Lisa in California]

You're welcome; I wish I could have been more help.

While researching, I was surprised to read that there were a number of shootings in 1991.  Perhaps it wasn't so out of the ordinary and thus didn't receive a lot of coverage?

The news media currently reports deaths without knowing names of the victims, or not being able to immediately release the names.  Perhaps the original story was written without their names and nothing further was written?

I tried a search on one of the pay sites for a connection between people who died on July 4, 1991 in Santa Barbara County, but after a brief look, didn't see any names or places of birth in common.

In 1991, according to one of the pay sites, a Rafael E Urdaneta was apparently living (or just had a P.O. Box!) in a town about 200 miles south of Santa Barbara.  If you were not aware of that, I can send the name of the town by pm (I don't like to disclose information about "recent" things, for privacy reasons).   

[Lisa in California]

I sent a pm that had a 1993 address.     It's possibly a mistake, or the address of a relative?

[M Urdaneta]

You will find articles in the San Diego newspaper and La Jolla light.  Why are you looking for information on them?  Sandra was murdered by her husband and he committed suicide.