Legal News

Howrey Associate Killed in Apparent Murder-Suicide

By Ashby Jones

Some tragic news rocked the seaside community of San Clemente, Calif., on Tuesday when word broke of a horrific murder-suicide involving a mother, her two daughters, and their grandmother.

Late Tuesday, police identified the mother as Howrey associate Elizabeth Fontaine, 38. Click here for the LAT article; here for an article from the San Clemente Times.

According to the LAT, Fontaine, 38, her daughters Catherine Fontaine, 4, and Julia Fontaine, 2, and their maternal grandmother, Bonnie Hoult, 67, were found dead Monday afternoon in a home where they were staying in a gated community in the upscale Talega community. Each was died of a single gunshot wound to the upper torso.

A handgun was recovered at the scene, but authorities said it was unclear who fired the shots.

"There's no question the two children were killed first, and one of the adult females is the killer, which is unusual by itself," said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

According to the LAT, officials are investigating the slayings as part of a child-custody dispute. The family was visiting Orange County for a hearing Monday during which temporary custody of the two daughters was given to an aunt, and the mother was instructed to return the next day, according to court records.

Fontaine worked in Howrey’s Orange County office, but had recently requested a transfer to the firm’s Houston office.

Howrey issued the following statement:

We were devastated to learn last evening that one of our associates, Elizabeth Hoult Fontaine, her mother and two daughters were found dead in a home in San Clemente, California.

Elizabeth had been an associate in our Irvine office since 2005 and had recently, at her request, transferred to the firm's Houston office. She was a talented lawyer who was advancing quickly in her career at Howrey. We will feel her loss deeply as a friend and as a colleague

We do not have any further information on this terrible tragedy.

According to a cached version of Fontaine’s bio on the Howrey web site, Fontaine worked as an intellectual property litigator. Prior to practicing law, Fontaine was a field support engineer for Rockwell Automation. She had degrees from Cal Poly and Loyola Law School.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 16, 2009 (boomark / email).