Land Park vigil honors slain Sacramento woman who gave tirelessly to her community
Kate Tibbitts exemplified community spirit, helping build community gardens, spending long hours as an elections volunteer, helping rescued dogs find a home and always offering a friendly smile to her neighbors and coworkers.
Many of the people who witnessed her giving spirit firsthand were among more than 100 who gathered Thursday evening at Plaza Cervantes Park in Sacramento’s Land Park neighborhood to honor her life. News of her brutal death has shocked them to the core and left them wondering how anyone could do this to such a caring person.
Mariann Fagunes used to work with Tibbitts at the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists. She said Tibbitts was looking forward to the next chapter in her life.
“She was just retired, getting her house together, having to start living the dream kind of thing, and then this. It’s just heart-wrenching,” Fagunes said. “The thought of what she was thinking of in her last moments, I think it nauseates all of us here who worked with her and were pretty close to her.”
Tibbitts, 61, was found slain inside her burned Land Park home on the morning of Sept. 3. Prosecutors allege Troy Davis broke into her 11th Avenue home overnight, assaulted her in an attempt to rape her, before killing her and her dogs.
“I’m here definitely for Kate, but I’m also here to try to hold my friends up or try to help them through this, because some of them have taken it pretty hard,” Fagunes said.
Two blocks from her house, Fagunes and others met at the neighborhood park for a candlelight vigil to share their remembrances of Tibbitts.
“We will address why this happened on another day,” said one of Tibbitts’ brothers, Dan Tibbitts, who spoke briefly at the vigil Thursday. “But tonight please keep my sister in your prayers.”
Sacramento SPCA memorial fund
Tibbitts had been a volunteer at the Sacramento SPCA for the past 25 years after starting out in 1996 helping with a book sale. She went on to volunteer as “a foster parent and a dog walker/socializer,” and “she transported animals to our rescue partners whenever and wherever she could,” the group said in an email to volunteers..
Daniel and Betty Lauer went to the vigil with their dog, Lucky, a Norweigan Elkhound who was found in the hills above Placerville, rescued and now serves as a trained therapy dog. They didn’t know Tibbitts, but they wanted to pay their respects.
“What a sad and senseless thing to happen,” Daniel Lauer said about Tibbitts’ death. “We wanted to come here and honor her for what she’s done for the SPCA.”
The Sacramento SPCA has created the Kate Tibbitts Memorial Fund to help with the medical care of dogs 7 years of age and older. In statement this week, Tibbitts’ family said she “was a major champion of homeless dogs and cats, and a continual volunteer at the SPCA.”
‘It can happen to any one of us’
Land Park neighbors like Connie and Richard Velasquez said they always saw Tibbitts out walking her dogs, Molly and Ginny. The trio were seldom apart. They called Tibbitts a “beautiful person” with a friendly attitude that fit right in the close-knit neighborhood.
The Velasquezes have lived in Land Park for 50 years. Like others, they woke up last week to find police crime scene tape blocking their streets as detectives investigated Tibbitts’ death. The couple said nothing like that has ever happened in their neighborhood, and they’re planning on installing security cameras at their home.
‘It’s a very scary incident — it can happen to any one of us,” Connie Velasquez said. “I think that’s why this guy was caught, because of the security cameras.”
A law enforcement source told The Sacramento Bee that Davis, a transient, initially showed up in the neighborhood north of Freeport Boulevard, not far from Sacramento City College, and was caught on a Ring doorbell camera masturbating on a neighbor’s porch.
The source, who was not authorized to speak about the investigation, said Davis returned to the neighborhood after evading police and broke into Tibbitts’ home through a window, attacking the woman and her dogs before the house caught fire.
Another neighbor, Susan Guerrero, said she spotted a man trying to break into her home late that night, and reported the prowler to police. The Sacramento Police Department has said officers and a law enforcement helicopter searched the area, but didn’t find the reported suspect.
Davis, a 51-year-old parolee with two prior strike convictions, was found and arrested the day after Tibbitts’ body was found. He made his first Sacramento Superior Court appearance Tuesday, and faces felony charges that would make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
In a letter Wednesday, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela called the Land Park woman’s death a “senseless tragedy,” and said they were “frustrated and angry” about the circumstances that led to her killing.
But Thursday night was for grieving what they had lost.
‘Overwhelming emotion: sadness of loss’
Lorna Reach, a neighbor of one of Tibbitts’ brothers, remembered seeing her from time to time during visits. Reach said Tibbitts was a dearly loved person, “was extremely friendly” and “always had a big smile.” Walking down 11th Avenue Thursday, Reach encountered supportive and thoughtful messages written in chalk on the sidewalk.
Courtney Bailey-Kanelos, Sacramento County’s Registrar of Voters, spoke at the vigil about Tibbitts’ tireless work during long hours as a volunteer at polls on Election Day. She said Tibbitts was quick to show her support for voting and democracy.
“I learned so much from her. She will always be remembered for serving her community,” Bailey-Kanelos said.
Father Loreto “Bong” Rojas said Tibbitts was excited to return to Holy Spirit Parish, which serves the Catholic community in Land Park, after spending so much time away during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he’s heard more about the fact she’s gone.
“And I was looking forward to getting to know her a lot more. And that’s where the lamentation is,” Rojas told the audience at the vigil. “Yes, there is frustration. But it is covered up by the fact we lost someone that we love. That’s the most overwhelming emotion: sadness of loss.”
Dave Tamayo was Tibbitts’ neighbor in the Fruitridge Manor neighborhood before she moved to Land Park several years ago. He remembered her involvement in the neighborhood association and her help in building a community garden at Peter Burnett Elementary School.
“There’s some people that are just very community-spirited, that’s what they do,” Tamayo said of Tibbitts. “I’m just really glad that somebody who had given so much of herself to the neighborhood; so many people saw that and came out just to honor her memory and what she meant to them and what she meant to the community.”
Donations for the Kate Tibbitts Memorial Fund can be made by check to the Sacramento SPCA, 6201 Florin Perkins Road, Sacramento, CA 95828.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 11:14 PM.
