Bereaved Family Speaks Out After Woman Beheaded On The Street In California

Karina Castro reportedly had a restraining order against the man now accused of killing her.
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The grieving family and friends of a slain California woman are remembering their loved one and talking about the warning signs they saw in the man now accused of her killing.

Karina Castro, 27, was beheaded with a sword Thursday morning outside her apartment in San Carlos, KRON4 reported. Her ex-boyfriend Jose Rafael Solano Landaeta, 33, is currently under arrest and charged with homicide.

Karina Castro in a Facebook profile photo
Karina Castro in a Facebook profile photo
Karina Castro/Facebook

“I feel like this is a horror movie I need to wake up from,” the woman’s father, Martin Castro Jr., told NBC Bay Area, adding that none of her family members had eaten or slept since the shocking incident.

Castro was the mother of two daughters, ages 7 and 1, and worked as a delivery driver. Law enforcement sources and the woman’s father both told ABC7 News that Castro had gotten a temporary restraining order in April against Landaeta, who is the father of her youngest child, though the pair had continued to interact since then.

Castro had expressed fear of Landaeta not long before her death, saying he had “put a target on her,” her friend Maricela Macedo told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Relatives remembered Castro as someone devoted to her family, especially her daughters.

“She was an amazing girl. She was a great mom,” Castro Jr. told KTVU. “The most caring person I’ve known. She always had my back.”

Her grandmother, Danielle Gannon, echoed those sentiments in an interview with KGO-TV.

“She was an amazing woman, very stubborn, determined to raise her daughters on her own,” Gannon said.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

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