San Clemente : Son Pleads Not Guilty in Car-Trunk Murder

The adult son of a woman found dead in a car trunk last month pleaded not guilty to murder charges Friday in South Orange County Municipal Court.

Matthew James Lombard, 25, lived with his mother in Capistrano Beach. He reported her missing Feb. 11, three days after he had seen her last, he told police. He was arrested on suspicion of murder a week after Emily Mae Lombard’s body was found, on Feb. 13, in the trunk of her car parked on a residential street in San Clemente.

San Clemente police Lt. Al Ehlow said the son confessed to investigators the night he was arrested that he had killed his 59-year-old mother, who worked as a clerk for a disposal company. Lombard was being held Friday on $250,000 bail in Orange County Jail. A pre-trial hearing was set for March 19, and a preliminary hearing of the case was scheduled for April 23.

Meanwhile, authorities said Friday that Emily Lombard died of arterial hemorrhages in the brain and heart, caused by blunt-force injuries to her head and body. She also suffered a fractured skull, Ehlow said.

An autopsy had found the woman was bludgeoned on the head and body but did not establish the exact cause of her death. Lab reports released Friday revealed the internal bleeding, police said.