‘It’s kind of hard to believe. I was scared for my wife more than anything else.’ : Fear Stalks Apartments After Killing

Residents of the Costa Mesa apartment complex where a woman was stabbed to death on Monday are eyeing strangers--and even neighbors--with new caution.

“We have a six-month lease, but I’m moving whether they (the management) like it or not,” said a 17-year-old girl who lives with friends in an apartment near the one where 22-year-old Malinda Gibbons was found dead with a single stab wound to the heart. Gibbons, of Utah, had moved to the Mediterranean Village apartment complex with her husband on Saturday.

“I can’t even walk around here or go swimming at night,” said the girl, who asked not to be identified. She added that she has already found a new apartment with tighter security. “I don’t feel safe (here) anymore,” she said.

The teen-ager and other uneasy residents watched Thursday as Costa Mesa police used metal detectors to search bushes for a weapon. Inside the Gibbonses’ first-floor apartment, other officers dusted for fingerprints that might help identify the attacker. Moving boxes, still unopened, were visible in the apartment through a door left ajar while investigators worked.

Police have no suspects in the case, according to Lt. Rick Johnson.

“It’s a pretty bleak set of circumstances we have here,” he said. “It’s sort of disheartening not to have the slightest bit of a clue.”

Gibbons moved with her husband, Kent, from Harrisville, Utah, a town of 2,200, because Kent took a job with Western Digital Corp. in Irvine. He returned home from his first day on the job to find his wife’s body on the bedroom floor of the apartment, police said. Kent Gibbons, who returned to Utah Monday night, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Since the slaying, apartment residents have taken new security precautions, said Jim Atkinson, a 24-year-old financial planner. Women who live alone in the 580-unit complex have asked neighbors to listen for screams and watch out for strangers. “It’s kind of hard to believe,” Atkinson said. “I was scared for my wife more than anything else.” The murder has made some residents suspicious of their neighbors, he added.

Another woman, who shares an apartment with her daughter, said she was most shocked that the attack was apparently unnoticed by residents, gardeners and other workers at the complex.

“This has made me a lot more conscientious and cautious of everyone I pass in the complex,” said the woman, who would not give her name. “I was horrified because I don’t think anyone was aware of what happened when it happened.”

Security guards are on duty at the complex from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., but no security people were working during the day Monday, when authorities say Gibbons was killed, said Kristi Whitworth, a management assistant for Ring Management Corp., which oversees the property. Whitworth said company officials believe that the murder was a random incident.

“They have a victim in this complex, and they won’t come back,” said Whitworth, whose own apartment is next door to the unit rented by the Gibbonses. “I feel like it’s the safest place in the world now.”