Local News in Brief : Fullerton : Boyfriend Sought After Woman’s Body Found

A 37-year-old Buena Park woman was found slain in her boyfriend’s apartment Monday and police were seeking the man, who was believed to have fled in her car, authorities said.

Irene Kay Hamilton apparently died around 3 a.m. Monday of trauma to her upper body, Fullerton Police Capt. Don Bankhead said. A neighbor said it appeared she had been stabbed in the chest.

Bankhead said police want to question Frederick Lee Ray, 41, who rented the apartment where Hamilton’s body was found. Police are calling the death a homicide. Bankhead said Ray drove away in Hamilton’s red, 1986 Nissan Pulsar, license number 2CYF198.

Hamilton and Ray, a martial arts expert, had been dating about a year, according to neighbors at the apartment complex in the 1400 block of South Orange Avenue. For the past several months, the pair were together constantly but quarreled often, neighbors said.

“They were fighting all the time,” said Ralph Jackman III, who lives beneath Ray’s apartment. “They were asked to leave one time.”

Ray was last seen by his son, police said. The unidentified son, described only as in his early 20s, met his father at 7:30 a.m. and thought he was acting strangely, Bankhead said.

Shortly before 10 a.m., Bankhead said the son returned to check on his father. When no one answered his knocks on the apartment door, the manager gave him a key to enter. He found Hamilton’s body and called police.