Sad news to report. Longtime Com Link member and Santa Ana neighborhood activist Rita Corpin, a 72-year-old , was discovered by her gardener around 11 p.m. Tuesday on the porch of her home in the 1400 block of South Rosewood Avenue in Santa Ana, police said, according to CBS News.

Corpin retired in 2010 from decades of teaching world history at La Quinta High School in Westminster, according to the OC Register.   Corpin was not hurting for money.  She retired with an annual pension of $120K per year, according to an online source.

I spoke to Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Sean Mill about Corpin’s death.  Mill recalled that she was actually one of his teachers.  In fact he said he got tossed from her class during a vigorous debate about Middle East politics.  You can read comments about her from her students here.

Corpin apparently died in a wheelchair while on her front porch. On her lap was a cat carrier with a kitten inside, according to the SAPD.  She was later identified by her brother and the coroner’s office at Rita Corpin.

Authorities said the home and yard were covered in garbage, with some trash piles over 5 feet high. They also found two pit bulls and more than 50 cats that will have to be trapped on the property, the Associated Press reported.

Because of the amount of trash and overgrown brush on the property, it took police wearing hazardous material suits about three hours to remove the her body from the home, according to KTLA News.

By Wednesday morning, authorities were busy trying to clear away the debris from the woman’s two other homes — both on Myrtle Street, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Corpin often attended Com Link and Neighborhood Association meetings and local events.  She was a real character and we are saddened to know that she died in such awful circumstances.  RIP Rita!