WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) - Two women whose bodies were found near a Southern California shopping mall were killed after a New Year’s Eve party one of them hosted, police said Tuesday.
The suspect in the slayings of Yolanda Holtrey, 59, and her 49-year-old friend attended the gathering at Holtrey’s Westminster home, police Cmdr. Cameron Knauerhaze said.
Evidence at the house led to Christopher Ireland, 37, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, Knauerhaze said. The Huntington Beach man and the victims were acquaintances, he said.
Police came to investigate after firefighters extinguished a suspicious fire early Sunday at Holtrey’s home. The women’s bodies were found the next day near a shopping center in Newport Beach.
“We believe the chronology of events was the homicide took place and the victims were taken out of the residence and the house was lit on fire to perhaps cover the crime scene,” Knauerhaze said.
Samantha Ireland, the suspect’s wife, told KNBC-TV that she and her husband, a real estate agent, had a good time at the party before returning home. She said there was no fight or argument at the gathering and no motive for a killing.
“I don’t remember him leaving the house in the middle of the night. He doesn’t remember anything,” she said. “If he doesn’t remember anything, I feel like maybe he was sleepwalking, and he didn’t know it?”
Calls made to Samantha Ireland were disconnected. A message was left on a phone number for Christopher Ireland.
Police did not release a cause of death for Holtrey or her friend, whose name was withheld pending notification of her family.
An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday, Knauerhaze said.
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