Seal Beach Remembers Those Lost in the Salon Meritage Mass Shooting

SEAL BEACH, CA — The city of Seal Beach remembers the mass shooting from 2011 where Scott Evans Dekraai gunned down his wife and others inside the Salon Meritage where she worked.

Laura Webb Elody's sister, Beth Webb, has become a leading voice in Proposition 62 campaign to abolish the death penalty.

On her Yes on 62 Website, Beth Webb stated:

“California’s death penalty system is a long, agonizing ordeal for our family,” said Beth Webb, whose sister was killed in a mass shooting in Seal Beach. “My sister’s killer confessed to his crime, but because the district attorney insists on seeking the death penalty, we are stuck in the penalty phase of a trial that keeps our wounds open. The death penalty is an empty promise of justice. Life without parole would stop the endless court dates and let the healing begin.”

The Fallen...

• Randy Lee Fannin, 62, Murrieta: Born Dec. 11, 1948, Fannin founded Salon Meritage in 1990. He had many longtime clients, some going back 20 years. He was married to Sandy, also a hairdresser. "I've known Randy professionally since 1979," Mary Shawn Usborne wrote on Facebook. "I know no one who could cut hair like him." Another client described Fannin as laid-back, a sentiment echoed in a chalk message on the front door of the salon: "Randy, RIP friend, Aloha." .

• Michelle Marie Fournier, 48, Los Alamitos: Described as cheerful, friendly and easy to be around, Fournier was the ex-wife of alleged killer Scott Dekraai. Born March 3, 1963, she is survived by three children, two of them adults. On Thursday afternoon at Fournier's rented condominium in Garden Grove, her sister declined to be interviewed.

• Christy Lynn Wilson, 47, Cerritos: Born June 5, 1964. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Wilson had testified on behalf of Fournier on Tuesday as part of Fournier's custody fight with the accused killer.

• Michele Daschbach Fast, 47, Seal Beach: Born May 21, 1964, she was a client of Salon Meritage. She was described as "blonde, cute and friendly" by Michael Vosburgh, a homeless man who hangs around the business park and used to rent a room from Fast's neighbors. Vosburgh said Fast is survived by her husband, Patrick, and three kids: two girls and a boy. He said Fast used to walk her dog every morning. "I just about fainted when I heard about Michele," he said. According to the Beach Futbol Club website, Fast was a team mom for the girls' U16 soccer club. "It is with great sadness that we write to let you know that one of the victims in the senseless Seal Beach tragedy was Michele Fast, wife of Patrick Fast who manages our Girls U16 White team, and mother of Lisa Fast a player on that team," the club's website states.

• Victoria Ann Buzzo, 54, Laguna Beach: Born July 21, 1957. Published reports describe Buzzo as having a "bubbly personality." The Orange County Register reports that she was married to her high school sweat heart for more than 30 years.

• Lucia Bernice Kondas, 65, Huntington Beach: Born Feb. 19, 1946. Kondas was customer who was having her hair styled at the salon

• Laura Lee Elody, 46, Huntington Beach: Born Oct. 1, 1965, she had just celebrated a birthday and was newly married. A stylist at the salon, Elody was also the daughter of Hattie Stretz, who was critically wounded in the shooting (see "One Survivor" below).

• David Caouette, 64, Seal Beach: Born July 14, 1947. He was a Massachusetts native who married his high school sweetheart and eventually moved to Seal Beach. He had three children. He perished in his Land Rover, parked outside of the salon after visiting the restaurant next door.

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Survivors...
The remaining victim of the shooting is 73-year-old Hattie Stretz, mother of victim Laura Webb Elody. She's married to Tom Stretz, a former director of the Los Alamitos Youth Center.

Sandy Fannin, co-owner of the salon and widow of the slain Randy Fannin, was on the premises at the time of the shooting but survived unharmed by hiding at the back of the property.

Love born in tragedy, remains to this day...

Dough Childers was the hero who confronted the shooter and treated victims. Tammy Hetzel was a stylist who lost several friends in the massacre. They met after mutually attending the many funerals that followed the mass shooting. They married in a small, Seal Beach ceremony one year later.

At first, Hetzel worried that a relationship born of such tragedy and intensity couldn’t last.

“But a couple of weeks into dating him, I thought he was the one for me,” said Hetzel. “I have so much respect for him. He’s everything I could ever want in a husband.”

Read the full story, here...

Paige Austin contributed to this report...