Fair Oaks Neighbors Shocked By Bizarre Murder

FAIR OAKS (CBS13) - Neighbors on a quiet Fair Oaks street continue to try to make sense of Sunday night's brutal and puzzling murder.

"That's just horrible, really it's just horrible, that someone would do something like that," Ian McLean said.

Police say 79-year-old Carole Sturgis was the victim of a random act of violence at the hands of Moses Trotter.

"I thought she was a neat lady," another neighbor said. "She wasn't your basic 80-year-old woman. She was a lady full of life and energy."

Roland Hyatt said he saw Trotter break into several houses shortly before the attack.

"I saw him coming out of one house," he said. "He was walking down the steps and went into the next house down."

Hyatt helped as neighbors chased a shirtless Trotter down the street.

Neighbors say Trotter was chased down Durland Way. Now talk about being in the wrong place, Carole Sturgis' house is directly perpendicular to Durland Way, and that's the house Trotter ran right into next.

He locked the door behind him. Neighbors couldn't get inside.

"Two gentlemen were chasing him, and they said, 'Oh, he locked the door,' and they couldn't get into the house," Hyatt said.

Carole Sturgis was dead minutes later.

"I pulled up Olympic and saw the patrol car with him naked, flat down, handcuffed," Hyatt said.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department isn't saying what may have driven Trotter to attack and is waiting on toxicology reports to find if drugs were in his system.

His mother talked with CBS13 off-camera on Monday night and said they attended church together on Sunday but that her son wasn't acting normal.

But Trotter, an aspiring rapper, may have left behind clues of his bizarre behavior in the form of Facebook posts.

Sunday, he wrote four brief messages: "Repent," "I need health care," "it's funny cause we al going die, lol," "When I die burry me in Fresno," and "The BASIC INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE LEAVING EARTH."

And Trotter is no stranger to the Sacramento County Jail. He has a long rap sheet, including drug and grand theft charges. He appears in court Tuesday.