Torilena Fields or Naomi Navarre: Co-star reflects on Kentucky woman accused of mother’s gruesome murder

KENTUCKY ( FOX 56 ) — The Kentucky woman accused of the gruesome death of her mother was once an aspiring Hollywood actress.

Andoni Zorbas, actor, writer, and director of the 2019 film "A Dance Story," recounted the time he spent on set with the woman he knew as Naomi Navarre .

"All I remember whenever I think of her I think of happiness. I think of laughter; I think of positivity; I think of strength," Zorbas recalled. "Because she was very tough and was every director's dream to have to work with on set because there was absolutely no complaint from her.

The film follows Zorbas' character Pablo Garcia, a street dancer who aspires to impress his strict father by becoming a doctor. However, his life turns upside down when he meets Victoria, a professional ballroom dancer, played by Torilena Fields, the woman facing charges for the death and mutilation of her mother's corpse.

"I didn't even know that her name was Torilena, at all. Everybody knows her as Naomi," Zorbas said.

The last time he spoke with Fields was in 2020, when she messaged him to wish his mother a happy Mother's Day.

"She knew my mother very well," Zorbas told FOX 56. "She loves her mother. These are the things that we were talking about that she has a very good relationship with her mother. Because, you know, I love my mother. And I mean, clearly, she loved her mother. I mean, which is odd to say now."

Zorbas said that he reached out to Fields for a role in his upcoming film "The Dream," but he couldn't get in touch with her.

"I knew something was going on with her after 'A Dance Story' because she just, the look in her eyes. I could tell that's not Naomi anymore; it's not the Naomi that we all knew her as," he said.

Her family told FOX 56 that everything changed in California when she was reportedly involved in a motorcycle accident that left her with a brain injury. Fields returned home sometime in August and was being cared for by her mother, Trudy Fields .

"[Fields] was, I guess, wandering around Cali. Didn't know her name. Didn't know where she belonged. I guess people were trying to get her help down there and couldn't get it done, so that's when Trudy stepped in to help," Olivia Brock, Fields' cousin, said.

RELATED:

Zorbas told FOX 56 he's still in shock after hearing the news of what his friend and co-star has been accused of .

"To literally chop up your mother and put the head of your mother in an oven. I mean, you don't even see this in, like, 'Forensic files,'" he told FOX 56. "Probably throughout my whole lifetime that I live, it'll be a splinter in my head questioning 'Why?' And I'm sure her family is too."

"I just cannot digest. I mean, I don't know. I expect a lot of things to happen in life, but this is the only thing that is the last thing that I could ever expect," Zorbas faltered. "Something had to happen for her to have something in her mind to do such a thing. It's beyond comprehension."

Beyond what occurred in Robertson County on Oct. 9, Zorbas said what's chilling is his film's ending.

An argument ensues between Fields' and Zorbas' characters when she grabs a pair of scissors in an attempt to stab him before being drug away by a police officer.

"The final scene of the film. The final scene is literally her sitting in jail," Zorbas said. "I don't know what to do about that. Is it destiny?"

Jace O'Barto contributed to this story.