Theater worker killed at motel in 1991, CA cops say. Now a new push for answers
Lucille Morgan’s 30-year-old son, Stephen Morgan, was fatally shot outside a California motel in 1991 after his movie theater shift.
At the time, she told the Press Enterprise “she cannot simply let her son’s unexplained death fade away,” according to a newspaper clipping shared by Riverside Police.
And, despite decades passing, she never has.
Lucille Morgan’s pursuit for justice in her son’s slaying continues, the Riverside Police Department said in an Aug. 11 Facebook post.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Stephen,” Lucille Morgan said in the post. “I still believe someone out there knows what happened that night.”
In a renewed call for information, police said they are looking to the public for answers in Stephen Morgan’s case.
A friend found Stephen Morgan “shot to death in the parking lot of the University Lodge Motel” where he lived in the early morning of July 11, 1991, police said.
Upon finding Stephen Morgan “unresponsive just outside the driver’s side door of his vehicle,” the friend called 911, police said.
“His wallet, keys, and briefcase were still at the scene,” suggesting he had not been robbed, police said.
Stephen Morgan had just returned home from a shift at a Moreno Valley movie theater when he was fatally shot, according to police.
Richard LaVigne, the motel’s manager, told the Press Enterprise in 1991 that Stephen Morgan “was one of the most easy going guys I’ve ever met,”
“He would always rather talk than fight,” LaVigne told the newspaper. “In fact, all the time I knew him, I never saw him fight. He was not the macho type.”
Police said investigators followed up on “numerous leads and tips” but never identified a suspect.
Lucille Morgan “remains determined,” police said.
“Please, if you have any information, no matter how small, come forward and help the detectives find the person who took my son’s life,” she said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Riverside police’s cold case unit by emailing HomicideColdCase@RiversideCA.gov or calling 951-320-8000.
