Trivia

Was of Hawaiian ancestory.

Adult film actress.

According to the LA Times of May 13, 1993, a maintenance worker found her decomposed body in a hollow brick column at Park Royale Mobile Home Park on Rampart Street in Orange, CA. This was two days after her sister in Lakewood reported her missing and about two weeks after anyone had last seen her. Police said Gandeza had a history of mental illness and might have been in the attic crawl space of the park's recreation building and accidentally fallen into the brick column. She had been staying at the mobile home park with friends after temporarily living in Lakewood with her sister. Her family identified her body through clothing, jewelry and physical features. Residents and employees had noticed a strange odor coming from the brick column for several days before the janitor was sent up to the attic, which was the only access to the column, where he found Gandeza's body head down in the hollow space. Firefighters tore down the column to get the body out.

According to public records from Case #430407 in the California Court of Appeals, 4th Appellate District, Division 2, wealthy married couple John and Christi Steen of Huntington Harbor in Orange County were sued on September 22, 1981, by Dorothy Elaine Gandeza, mother and legal guardian of Deann Rochelle Gandeza, for sexual acts that allegedly occurred from August through October of 1980 at the Steen residence at 3592 Venture Blvd in Huntington Beach, at the Steen's nearby business office, and on their nearby moored yacht. The suit alleged that Deann, then 13, was in the "care and control" of the Steens at the time, was given drugs and forced to participate in sexual activities with them and at least four others named in the suit as well, and that this resulted in shock and injury to Deann's nervous system and had caused permanent emotional suffering and damage. Since the matter concerned injuries sustained in the house, it was filed against the Steen's homeowner's policy #72RA916967 with Hartford Insurance in 1983 and settled out of court on September 6, 1983 for $40,000, with Exhibit E of the settlement stating "Minor continues to experience emotional problems." The Steens both were arrested, charged with child molestation, and sent to a California mental hospital in Patton. It is not made clear as to why Deann was in the care of the Steens at the time of the abuse. The Hartford claim number, 980KL62025, was not only for the charges involving Deann but for a separate incident involving a minor female, Heather Friederich, the daughter of a couple who were friends of the Steens. This couple visited the Steens on several occasions, and the wife was having a lesbian affair with Christi during that time.

Interred at Magnolia Memorial Park, Garden Grove, CA.