MOORPARK : Stabbing Victim Is Identified; Student Sought

The man found stabbed to death at his Moorpark residence Tuesday has been identified as Fernando Fierro, 54, homicide investigators with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said.

Fierro had been renting a room at a home owned by Laurette Zabriskie for the past month, according to a statement released by Zabriskie.

Along with Fierro, Zabriskie was renting a room to Michael Baity, 23, a Moorpark College student who is now wanted by homicide investigators for questioning.

Fierro was found dead about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in a bathroom that he and Baity used, said Lt. Larry Robinson, who is supervising the investigation. Fierro died of multiple stab wounds, a spokesman for the county coroner’s office said.

Deputies have been unable to find Baity since Fierro’s body was discovered.

Neighbors said they did not know Fierro, but had seen Baity often since he started renting a room in the home on Pecan Avenue in August.

“I hope he had nothing to do with this,” said Janina Sheppard, who lives across the street with her husband and four children. “He seemed like a really nice guy.”

The slaying is Moorpark’s first in 1995, said Lt. Marty Rouse of the Sheriff’s Department’s Moorpark Enforcement Division.