Westminster Man Slain in His Back Yard : Crime: The retired hardware importer restored cars in a quiet residential area. Police suspect that he confronted an intruder.

WESTMINSTER — A retired hardware importer was shot to death Thursday morning when he apparently confronted an intruder in his back yard, police said.

Donald Mulleneaux, identified by friends, was killed about 80 minutes before a family friend found his body and called police at 10:50 a.m., Police Officer Robin Kapp said.

Mulleneaux, 48, was home alone when he was slain, and no one reported seeing the shooting at the corner of Bestel Avenue and Jasperson Way, Kapp said.

Police Sgt. Russell Silva said a neighbor reported hearing at least two shots in the quiet residential area about 9:30 a.m.

Other than that, police said, they have nothing to go on. “We’re really shooting in the dark here,” Silva said.

But police do not think it was a suicide. “We are treating it as a murder,” Kapp said.

A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said it appeared that Mulleneaux had been shot in the head.

“I looked over the fence, and he was lying on his back,” the neighbor said. “His head was bloody.”

Neighbors, a middle-age couple who lived with Mulleneauxes and friends described him as an easygoing man who was dedicated to his family and had made a living since selling a hardware importing company several years ago by restoring cars.

His wife, Paula, a saleswoman at the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Co. headquarters in Huntington Beach, and his two adult children, whom police declined to identify, were unavailable for comment.

As police detectives and coroner’s officials combed through Mulleneaux’s back yard, where two covered Porsches are stored, the couple who lived with the Milleneauxes sat on a neighbor’s porch and talked about their longtime friends.

“Those are quiet, nice people,” said the wife, who asked not to be named. “They don’t smoke. They don’t drink. They don’t party. We’ve known them for 25 years. I don’t understand this at all.”

The couple said it was curious that the murder occurred during one of the rare moments when Mulleneaux was home alone.

The couple, who are usually home during the day, left the house early in the morning for an appointment at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

When they arrived home, they found the street clogged with police cars. Yellow police tape was stretched across the front and side of the small, single-story home.

“This is really a mystery,” said the husband, who also declined to be identified. “I really wish I didn’t have my appointment today. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened. It’s so unusual that nobody else was home.”