Orange Police Discover Couple Dead in Rented Storage Unit

Police in Orange, summoned by a neighbor who had heard a radio blaring continuously for four days, opened a rented storage unit Friday afternoon and found a man and a woman dead inside.

“We don’t know whether it’s an accident, suicide or murder,” said Sgt. Larry Pore. “We couldn’t determine the cause of death. . . . There were no weapons or anything else like that.”

Decomposition made the preliminary examination difficult, but there seemed to be no signs of violence, Pore said. An autopsy was scheduled for today, “and we’ll know a lot more after that,” he said.

Lived in Anaheim

Police identified the dead as Timothy Roy Kirby, 30, and Lydia Perez, 32, also known as Lydia Hernandez. “Apparently they’re boyfriend and girlfriend” and lived together in Anaheim, Pore said.

He said the couple reportedly cared for a paraplegic man with whom they lived, but the man apparently did not report them missing. “We have not interviewed him yet,” Pore said.

Kirby and Perez rented the 12-by-24 1/2-foot unit at MJV Storage, 1389 N. Manzanita St., in October. They listed on their rental agreement that they would keep “woodworking equipment” in the space, Pore said.

Police, who picked a lock to gain entry, found a car, a utility storage shed, tools and woodworking materials inside. “I got the impression that they made craft clocks,” Pore said.

A man who rents the space next door heard a radio playing “very loud for four straight days, calls and says there’s something very strange there,” Pore said.