WARNING SIGNS ON WEB? INTERNET, NEIGHBORS OFFER CLUES TO SLAYING SUSPECT'S MIND-SET.

Byline: LISA M. SODDERS Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE -- The MySpace.com Web page of a young Northridge man suspected of stabbing to death his parents and sister starts with a Latin quote that translates: ``Everything which I used to say could not happen will happen now.''

Profiling himself on his Web site as a Pierce College English and philosophy major and assistant manager at a retail store, the 21-year-old last logged onto his MySpace page the day before his parents and teenage sister were found dead at their home. It was unclear whether he changed anything on his page.

But at some point, he had written that the instant messenger phrase he most overused was, ``I'm going to kill you.''

And he wrote that he got along ``OK with my parents ... unless they're on one of their schizo stages.''

Brandon Christopher Menard, whose MySpace profile was under the name Mbrandon Von Awkward, is in jail on suspicion of murder in the deaths of his real-estate broker father, David; mother Toni, a UCLA psychiatric nurse; and sister Ashley, 16, a Granada Hills High dance team member.

An older brother, Scott, was not involved in the slayings, authorities believe.

Police have not commented on what might have motivated the killings, which were reported in a 911 call Friday morning. Police say that when officers arrived at the Stare Street home, Brandon Menard was there.

His 56-year-old father and 55-year-old mother were dead inside the house. Ashley was dead in the backyard. All three had been stabbed multiple times.

Brandon Menard told police he had returned home to find his parents and sister dead. He was arrested that night.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Brandon described himself as a Pierce College English/philosophy major and an assistant manager at the Tuesday Morning gift store in Encino on his page on MySpace, a social networking Web site popular with teens and young adults.

His MySpace page said he enjoyed reading autopsy textbooks and wore a black trench coat -- a habit noticed by neighbors, one of whom said she and her husband called him ``Columbine,'' after the garb worn by teen killers at Colorado's Columbine High School in April 1999.

As news of the three deaths spread, friends posted comments on the page, using the shorthand common on the Web.

``Brandon wtf did u do? multiple wounds ... y the (expletive) would u have killed ur family and sister,'' one friend wrote.

``I SUPORT YOU BRANDON! I KNOW YOU DIDN'T DO IT!'' another friend wrote.

``Whenever you get this i know u didnt dot it theres no way...'' another friend wrote.

Neighbors also struggled to comprehend the horrific slayings.

Red and white candles, balloons, a stuffed bear, bouquets of flowers and photographs of a smiling Ashley formed a makeshift memorial at a street corner near the Menard home.

``I'm just shocked,'' said Carla Loomis, who lives two doors down and whose home David Menard helped refinance. ``He was always friendly; they seemed like a normal family, fairly normal kids. They seemed happy.''

Loomis said Brandon once volunteered to fix a neighbor's mailbox, and that both Brandon and his older brother were active in Boy Scouts. Brandon is listed as a leadership contact for Boy Scout Troop 550 that meets at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Loomis said Scott Menard had moved to Seattle and was an emergency medical technician, but had recently moved back home.

Other neighbors described the Menards as people who kept to themselves. Next-door neighbor Shelly Ontiveros, who lived next to the Menards for seven years, said David Menard was initially friendly, but objected to people parking in front of his house and would turn his lawn sprinklers on their cars.

Neighbor Rita Horwitz said she and her husband nicknamed David Menard ``Vietnam'' because his demeanor would be friendly one day and ``weird'' the next. They called Brandon ``Columbine'' because the trenchcoat he sometimes wore reminded them of the 1999 school massacre.

The Menard family always seemed to be in the middle of home improvement projects that they never finished, Horwitz said.

Visible inside the front room Saturday were piles of ducting and walls that had been taken down to the studs, as if the room were in the process of being remodeled.

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) MENARD

(2) This photo of Brandon Menard and an unidentified girl appears on his MySpace page.