Music teacher slain in her Palo Alto home

Palo Alto police were releasing few details Monday morning as their investigation continued into the killing of a Palo Alto music teacher in her Southgate neighborhood home.

The death of Kristine Pedersen Fitzhugh, 53, had been called an accident on Friday, when her body was found at the foot of her basement stairs. On Saturday, however, the police reclassified the death as a homicide after an autopsy indicated that her head injuries could not have been received in a fall.

Police would not say whether the homicide was linked to a recent string of burglaries in the area.

Fitzhugh was a music instructor in the Palo Alto Unified School District and at the Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto.

She and her husband, Kenneth, have two college-age sons. The family's home on Escobita Avenue is in the Southgate neighborhood, between El Camino Real and Alma Street just south of Palo Alto High School.

Memorial services for Fitzhugh are planned for Saturday at 3 p.m. at the chapel of Roller, Hapgood & Tinney, 980 Middlefield Road. Memorial contributions may be made to the Palo Alto Ravenswood Music Collaborative, c/o Dr. Kay Remsen, 85D Churchill Ave., Palo Alto 94306.