San Diego

San Diego police are investigating the beating death of a Mission Valley woman and a possible homicide in the death of a Hillcrest woman.

The Mission Valley woman, identified by the San Diego County coroner’s office as 26-year-old Deborah Thornton, was found by her boyfriend lying dead on her bed in her apartment on San Diego Mission Road shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday, a police spokesman said. Thornton had been severely beaten on the head, police said.

There was no evidence of forced entry or ransacking in the apartment, police added. The boyfriend told police that he had last spoken to Thornton at 6 p.m. Tuesday. As of late Wednesday night, police had made no arrests, and homicide detectives were continuing their investigation.

The Hillcrest victim also was found dead in her apartment by her boyfriend Wednesday morning with facial injuries, authorities said.

The boyfriend and another friend of the victim forced their way into her Dove Street apartment about 9 a.m. Wednesday after the boyfriend had been unable to reach her by telephone, a police spokesman said. The victim’s name had not been released late Wednesday night, pending notification of relatives.

Police learned that the victim, found lying on her living room floor near a couch, had gone to the UC San Diego Medical Center Monday night for treatment of an injury to her nose but had refused to be examined by a physician. The cause of the woman’s death remains undetermined pending an autopsy, police said.