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Vanessa Malaepule, 34

Vanessa Malaepule, a 34-year-old woman of Samoan descent, was shot and killed Sunday, Nov. 2, along with four others, while visiting a homeless encampment under the Santa Fe off-ramp of the Long Beach Freeway, authorities said.

Malaepule, an unemployed single mother of six -- ages 8, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 16 at the time -- was with her boyfriend, Lorenzo Perez Villacana, a 44-year-old Latino, at the time of the slayings.

Susie Latweeka (left) cries with her cousin Fiaora Tuitasi (right) near the location in Long Beach where Latweeka's mother, Vanessa Malaepule was found shot to death with four others in what police are calling a homeless encampment November 3, 2008. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times She lived in a nearby home with her mother and children.

Long Beach police said all of the dead were friends who had been socializing with one another for some time.

-- Louis Sahagun

Photo: Susie Latweeka (left) cries with her cousin Fiaora Tuitasi (right) near the location in Long Beach where Latweeka's mother, Vanessa Malaepule was found shot to death. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times

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