Murrieta, CA: Slain Salon Owner Was Father, Friend, Golfer

Friends and family grapple with Randy Fannin's death.

On Monday and Tuesday mornings--including this past Tuesday--Randy Fannin could typically be found on the golf course near his Murrieta home.

On Wednesday afternoon, he was one of eight people killed when a gunman opened fire at the salon he owned in Seal Beach.

Fannin was doing a regular customer's hair when he and others in the salon fell victim to a bitter custody dispute between alleged gunman Scott Dekraai and Dekraai's ex-wife Michelle Fournier, a salon stylist.

The day after the shooting, friends and neighbors of Fannin said they were stunned by the news.

"I found out through one of the golfers," said David Garner, general manager of the Golf Club at Rancho California, the Murrieta course Fannin lived on.

"He was here Tuesday," said Garner, who's known Fannin five years. "He'd play early in the morning. He'd come out by himself and join up with whoever was out here."

Garner and some of Fannin's golf buddies are planning to send flowers to the family.

"I am very sad, very shocked," Garner said. "Golf glubs are kind of like bars--you get to know each other well out here."

Douglas and Christine Mills, longtime friends of Fannin and his wife, Sandy, drove to Fannin's well-kept home Thursday to see if she was OK. Those close to the family said she was in the shop when the shooting occurred, but wasn't shot.

The Millses said they'd known Randy 20 years. Christine got her hair done by Sandy, and Douglas by Randy, at a shop in Old Town Temecula.

They lost touch a few years ago when the Fannins bought Salon Meritage in Seal Beach. The Fannins would spend Monday and Tuesday at their Murrieta home, then drive to Seal Beach for the remainder of the week to work in the shop.

"It is just a horrible tragedy," Douglas said. "There is no why to it; it was just an idiot that took out eight innocent lives."

The Fannins married about the same time the Millses met them 20 years ago, Douglas said. They didn't have any children together, but both had adult children from previous marriages.

Sam Zorrilla, 64, a neighbor who lived two doors down from the Fannins for five years, was also in shock.

"I just talked to him four days ago. ... We didn't even know..." Zorrilla said. "Then the L.A. Times called us ... That's how we found out. Then we tuned to Channel 5 and it was there--Randy was there and he was shot and killed."

Ross Vacca, 73, played golf with Fannin for seven years.

"He was just a great guy," Vacca said. "I am still sick about it."

No one answered the door at the Fannin home Thursday. Flowers were placed on the doorstep, and news vans came and went.