Fatal Slashing of Man Baffles Surviving Kin

A 27-year-old man apparently waiting for his girlfriend near his parents’ home was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant, and detectives said Wednesday they don’t know what prompted the attack.

Mark Jeffrey Tomsen, of Westminster, was standing at Goldenwest Street and Fenway Drive just before midnight Tuesday when someone repeatedly slashed him with a sharp object, Police Lt. Bill Lewis said.

Tomsen went to his parents’ nearby home and called for help. He died at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

The slaying baffled about a dozen relatives who gathered Wednesday at the family’s home. Relatives said he had gone to a bar to play pool Tuesday night. There was no sign of robbery, police said.

Tomsen was the second member of his family to die in about a year. In 1995, his brother Paul died of complications from AIDS, Ronald Tomsen, an uncle from Hemet, said. “It’s very rough for the family right now,” the uncle said.

A construction worker who also was employed by area moving companies, Mark Tomsen was on parole after serving time for a robbery conviction, state Department of Corrections records show.

In 1991, he stole $1,000 from a pizza delivery man, according to court records. Tomsen also was convicted of burglary in 1989, records show.

Family members said Tomsen was trying to get his life back together, including getting a job and spending three weeks helping paint the house of brother Roy Tomsen.

Relatives described Tomsen as a “free spirit” who was talented, warm-hearted and loyal. He grew up in Santa Ana and loved playing the guitar and drawing.

“We were in the bedroom once and he did a portrait of me,” Roy Tomsen said. “It came out looking like me, but you could see my father in it, you could see my brother David and even him in it. It was amazing.”