Coffin Opened in Fruitless Search for Murder Guns

In an unsuccessful attempt to find the weapons they believe a Reseda man used to kill his wife, a prosecutor and two detectives earlier this month unearthed and opened the woman’s casket, believing the husband had hidden them there.

In an affidavit written to support a search warrant, a detective said that, based on statements by family members and personnel at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, there was reason to believe that Harry Conklin had “secreted the murder weapons in the casket of his wife.”

But, upon searching the casket Feb. 7, police found nothing except the body.

The next day, lacking both an eyewitness and physical evidence, prosecutors dropped a murder charge they had filed against Conklin after his wife of five years, Darlene, was shot to death in their home on Aug. 22.

Daughter Couldn’t Testify

Although the Conklins’ 3-year-old daughter told police that she saw her father hit her mother and then heard a loud bang, a judge ruled that the girl was too young to be a qualified witness.

Police and the district attorney’s office have said they will continue their investigation in an attempt to prove that Conklin killed his wife. Conklin, 39, has maintained that he was at his job at the time of the slaying.

When informed Tuesday of the exhumation of the body, Conklin said, “They desecrated her. It’s just one more slap in the face. Nothing is sacred to them.”

Conklin’s attorney, Barry Taylor, said neither he nor his client had been informed of the unsealing. He called it “outrageous.”

“The prosecutors are convinced of his guilt beyond all reason,” Taylor said. “It’s become an obsession with them.”

Action Defended

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert McIntosh acknowledged that unsealing “might seem far-fetched for the average person who would have committed a crime like this.”

But he defended the action, based on Conklin’s interest in the supernatural and what he called Conklin’s “bizarre fascination with murder.”

Conklin, an avowed survivalist and gun aficionado, last year bought a step-by-step murder manual called “Death Dealer’s Handbook,” which outlined the methods used to kill 38-year-old Darlene Conklin, according to evidence introduced during a preliminary hearing.

A coroner’s report showed that the woman was killed by shots from two guns, a .32-caliber and .38-caliber revolver or pistol.

The affidavit, written by Detective Patrick Conmay of the Los Angeles Police Department, said that Harry Conklin viewed his wife’s body the day before her Aug. 27 funeral. The affidavit said that, on instructions from Conklin, a Forest Lawn undertaker sealed the casket and gave Conklin a key. Conklin then was left alone in the room.

McIntosh said that he is is “almost certain” that Conklin then opened the coffin.

“Maybe he just wanted to take another look, I don’t know. But there was cause enough to consider that he placed something in the casket,” he said.

Before the start of the funeral Conklin informed his wife’s family that he had locked the casket and that he “did not want anyone to see her the way she looked,” the affidavit said, quoting Darlene Conklin’s brother and sister.

However, after the sister and brother protested and went to the mortuary, they were permitted to view the body.

When Conklin was told of the family’s action, “he flew into a rage and stormed off,” the affidavit said.

Relief Described

It was only after Conklin was told that just the top part of the casket had been opened, not the bottom section, that he appeared relieved, the affidavit said.

Conmay said he believed Conklin had placed the murder weapons at the foot of the casket.

“He was given the opportunity to reopen and insert the guns into the coffin in privacy,” the detective said in his affidavit.

When McIntosh, Conmay and another detective went to Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, the coffin was opened, searched, resealed and reinterred within one hour, said McIntosh.

“We were shocked when we didn’t find anything in the casket,” he said. “We felt bad. We were doing it in the best interests of the deceased and the family.”

Conmay said hiding a murder weapon in such a fashion would be highly unusual. “I had never heard of it before, but it made sense with the information we had. The lead we had just didn’t pan out.”

Weapons Not Found

The weapons used to kill Darlene Conklin have not been recovered. “There are a million places where the weapon could be,” McIntosh said. “It could be have been thrown in the ocean, melted down, tossed down the sewer. We just don’t know.”

Although Conklin had not been notified of the exhumation, he visited his wife’s plot three days later, after spending five months in custody. He said he noticed loose dirt and gravel surrounding the plot.

“The ground was eroded all around the grave,” he said. “I thought it was from the rain. I never thought the police would ever have done this. I’m numb.”