The names of the three remaining victims of Friday night’s mass murder in Isla Vista were released Sunday afternoon by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
The bodies of the three young men were found inside the Seville Road apartment of Elliot Rodger, who authorities say killed six people and injured 13 others Friday before apparently taking his own life during a shootout with sheriff’s deputies.
The three found dead in the apartment suffered multiple stab wounds, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Hoover.
She identified them as Cheng Yuan Hong, 20, and George Chen, 19, both of San Jose, and Weihan Wang, 20 of Fremont.
All three were UC Santa Barbara students, Hoover said.
Chen, Hong and Rodger were all listed on the lease for the unit at the Capri Apartments, she said.
“Sheriff’s investigators are in the process of determining whether Wang was also a roommate or was visiting the residence,” she added.
Investigators believe Rodger killed the three prior to going on a shooting rampage through Isla Vista, which began shortly before 9:30 p.m. Friday.
In a lengthy “manifesto” he wrote sometime before his alleged killing spree, he indicated he planned to murder his roommates at his apartment prior to executing his deadly plan.
Shot dead Friday night were two women who were standing outside the Alpha Phi sorority house in the 800 block of Embarcadero Del Norte.
Several members of the sorority told investigators they heard aggravated knocking on the front door of the house for a couple of minutes.
No one opened the door, and shortly after that, witnesses reported seeing three young women standing outside gunned down by the suspect, who was in a black BMW across the street.
Two of those women were killed — Katherine Breann “Katie” Cooper, 22, of Chino Hills, and Veronika Elizabeth Weiss, 19, of Westlake Village. Both were UCSB students and members of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.
A third woman, whose name was not released, suffered multiple gunshot wounds, but survived.
After shooting the three women, Rodger allegedly drove to the Isla Vista Deli Mart in the 6500 block of Pardall Road, got out of his vehicle, and entered the store, where he fatally shot Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, a 20-year-old UCSB student from Los Osos.
Sheriff Bill Brown told Noozhawk that autopsies would be performed on Rodger and his six victims. Those autopsies have not yet been done, however.
It turns out that Hong was the roommate whom Rodger accused of stealing three candles earlier this year, according to District Attorney Joyce Dudley.
She said deputies from the Isla Vista Foot Patrol were called to the Seville Road apartment on Jan. 15 by Rodger, who had made a citizen’s arrest.
The matter was turned over to Dudley’s office, and on Feb. 14, Hong pleaded guilty to petty theft, as the candles were valued at only $22.
The matter was handled as an infraction because Hong had no previous criminal history, and the dollar amount of the theft was so slight, she said.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
