2 KILLINGS SHOCK TOWN HUSBAND, WIFE DIE IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE.

Byline: Amy Raisin Darvish Staff Writer

NEENACH - A father of four, distraught over his failing marriage, gunned down his wife Friday in this High Desert town, then killed himself, authorities said.

Two of the couple's children were at home, including an 8-year-old daughter who called 911, summoning Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's deputies to the small, rural home east of Gorman.

Authorities received the call shortly before 11 a.m. and arrived to find the girl and her 4-year-old sister. Their parents lay dead inside.

Neighbors identified the couple as Alfonzo and Rebecca Torivio, both in their mid to late 30s. Alfonzo, who owned a firewood business, was upset over his wife's decision to leave him about two months before.

``She left him and I heard that he was planning to (sell) the place,'' said a neighbor who would not give her name. ``They are a very nice couple, but I heard he was just totally distraught about her leaving.''

The two older children, a 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, were at school. A neighbor said she saw Alfonzo Torivio at about 7 a.m. Friday as he dropped the older children at the school bus stop, about a three- minute drive from the house.

As neighbors gathered in the distance to console each other, a strong, cool wind howled in the distance flapping the yellow police tape surrounding the Torivio home. A rusted aluminum overhang shaded the front porch of the single-story white house, set back from a dirt road.

The blue sky, small Joshua trees and occasional rooster's crow in the distance created a sense of rural tranquillity. But that image was shattered by the dozen sheriff's deputies milling outside the Torivio home.

At about 1 p.m. a deputy arrived with a bag of food for the young sisters, who were seated in the back seat of one of the patrol cars. The children occasionally lifted their heads above the car's seats to peek at the commotion unfolding outside their home.

One deputy, who frequently chatted with the girls in both English and Spanish, passed a stuffed teddy bear to the children through an open car window.

Neighbors said Rebecca Torivio got a job in the Santa Clarita Valley about six months ago and had recently lost about 30 pounds.

``She was really very beautiful, even without losing the weight,'' a neighbor said. ``She had long, shiny black hair. She was very nice. We'd see each other at PTA meetings, at the clothing drive.''

Mary-Ann Stokes, a longtime resident who knew the family casually, said the home was often bustling with relatives, some of whom lived in the area, she said.

Amy Raisin Darvish, [phone]

amy.raisin(at)dailynews.com

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) Lucy, above, a neighbor who did not want to give her last name, reacts to the news of a murder-suicide Friday in a home along Avenue B2 in Neenach. Officials, left, converge upon the rural Neenach home where a man shot his wife, then turned the gun on himself. A sheriff's deputy, top left, draws a line around the crime scene, unrolling tape around the nearby intersection's signpost.

David Crane/Staff Photographer