Son Held After Mother’s Body Found in Auto

A 25-year-old Capistrano Beach man has been arrested in connection with the slaying of his mother, whose body was found last week in the trunk of her locked car two days after the son had reported her missing, police said Thursday.

Matthew James Lombard, who lived with his 59-year-old mother, Emily Mae Lombard, was booked into the San Clemente City Jail Wednesday night on suspicion of murder and was being held without bail, police said. Investigators declined to say what the motive might have been for the slaying.

He was to be arraigned on the charge today in South Orange County Municipal Court.

Says Son Confessed

Police Lt. Al Ehlow said Thursday that Lombard admitted slaying his mother during an interview Wednesday night with Orange County sheriff’s investigators.

The body of Mrs. Lombard, clad in a nightgown, was found on a blanket in the trunk of her 1972 Ford Maverick the night of Feb. 13, two days after Matthew Lombard had reported her disappearance to sheriff’s officers. She had been bludgeoned about the head, but investigators said they have yet to determine the exact cause of her death, pending the outcome of tests.

Ehlow said investigators interviewed both Matthew and his 28-year-old brother, Robert Mitchell Lombard, the night their mother’s body was discovered. “It doesn’t look like the other brother (Robert) was involved at all,” Ehlow said Thursday.

“Subsequent interviews with friends, neighbors and family members led investigators to focus their investigation on the younger son, Matthew,” Ehlow said, reading from a prepared statement. “Matthew was re-interviewed by investigators Wednesday at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. He gave them certain incriminating statements that led to his arrest at 7:40 p.m.,” Ehlow said.

Authorities believe Emily Mae Lombard, a longtime divorcee and a clerk at Solag Disposal Co. in San Juan Capistrano, may have been killed in her apartment in the unincorporated community of Capistrano Beach.

Articles Analyzed

Using a warrant to search the apartment shared by the mother and son at 26411 Via Sacramento, investigators last week collected “several articles” that were taken to the county crime lab to be analyzed, Ehlow said. He would not comment on what the items were but said no weapon has been found.

Matthew Lombard, who has no criminal record, had been working irregularly on a boat with his father, a commercial fisherman and retired Sheriff’s Department Harbor Patrol sergeant, police and acquaintances of the family said.

According to police, Matthew Lombard reported his mother missing three days after he said he had last seen her alive at a family friend’s dinner party. His only brother, Robert, a carpenter who shares a Capistrano Beach apartment with a roommate, also attended the party, Ehlow said.

Matthew Lombard told officers that his mother had left the gathering in San Juan Capistrano alone about 9:30 p.m. and that when he arrived at their home at 8:30 a.m. the next day, neither she nor her car were there, Ehlow said.

“He said he was walking home from a bar,” Ehlow said last week, referring to Matthew Lombard’s explanation of why he did not return home for 11 hours.

Her Car Is Spotted

On the afternoon of Feb. 13, someone--it was not clear who--reported to the Sheriff’s Department that Mrs. Lombard’s car had been found in a San Clemente residential neighborhood. A San Clemente police officer was sent to check the car and the surrounding neighborhood, Ehlow said, but found nothing amiss. Residents told the officer that they had first noticed the car on Feb. 11.

Several hours later, Robert Lombard called the police department, said that he had a key to his mother’s car and that he wanted an officer to meet him, his brother and a friend at the vehicle to unlock it, Ehlow said. He said Robert Lombard told the officer that his father--identified by authorities as Vic Lombard--had suggested checking the vehicle. The woman’s body was discovered and positively identified the next day, based on personal belongings and surgical scars.

Emily Mae Lombard was a friendly woman, pleasant to work with, her supervisor at the disposal firm said Thursday. She had worked for Solag Disposal for about a year. She was very private about her personal life and interests, said the office manager, who declined to give her name.

Acquaintances said the entire family was fond of the ocean and seemed to be familiar to those who surf off south Orange County beaches.

“The whole family used to go down to San Onofre (State Beach),” Ehlow said. He said Mrs. Lombard, a silver-haired, tanned beach lover, “was kind of into the surfing crowd.

“One of the officers here is a surfer and he knew the family. (Emily) used to hang out at San Onofre.”