400 Mourn Pair of Slain Sisters

CHATSWORTH —  The skies began to clear Friday morning as 400 mourners ushered solemnly into a St. John Eudes Catholic Church to remember Angela and Serafina Chimienti, two sisters shot to death Christmas Eve by Angela’s estranged boyfriend.

On their way through the church rectory, many friends and relatives paused tearfully at a display of photographs: 19-year-old Angela peering out from under a mortarboard at her high school graduation; 25-year-old Sera, as she was known, cradling a friend’s newborn baby.

“Violence,” the Rev. Robert J. Folbrecht told the packed church, “is never the answer.”

The sisters, both with dark hair and eyes, and broad, engaging smiles, were visiting at their parents’ Chatsworth home when they were gunned down by Edward Vizcarra, 31, a former sheriff’s deputy, police said.

Angela had recently broken up with Vizcarra, according to her twin sister, Caterina, when the Newhall man appeared at the home on Christmas Eve, a handgun tucked in his waistband.

When Angela asked what he was doing there, he shot her, said Caterina, who was there. Serafina heard the gunshot and rushed to Angela’s aid. Then Vizcarra shot her and turned the gun on himself.

Friday’s service was a traditional Catholic ceremony, which began when the group of young pallbearers carried two off-white caskets covered with yellow roses into the chapel. The Chimienti family--father Saverio, mother Vita, Caterina and 17-year-old Cosimo--followed, clutching each other for support.

Other than Folbrecht, the church’s associate pastor, the only person to speak was a boyfriend of Sera’s, who described her as a “peppy, spunky and . . . beautiful” woman who dreamed of being an emergency room nurse.

Folbrecht told the mourners there would be no easy explanations to help them through this tragedy, only their faith that the young women had gone “to a better place.”