Despite Lots of Leads, Officials Baffled in Search for Intruder

Authorities investigating the so-called “Valley Intruder” slayings thought they had a break in the baffling case: a driver who had fled on foot from a San Marino policeman after a routine traffic stop closely resembled a composite drawing of the killer.

An all-out search was launched in the neighborhood around Huntington Drive and San Gabriel Boulevard where the driver melted into the night Monday. Roadblocks were erected. Four tracking dogs were called in. Thirty officers from several agencies went house to house while a sheriff’s helicopter circled overhead, its bullhorn warning residents: “Stay inside, lock your windows and doors.”

But the massive effort was in vain. The object of the manhunt, who surrendered about 4 a.m. Tuesday to Monterey Park police, turned out to be a frightened, 17-year-old youth from Monterey Park who had been driving his mother’s car without permission.

Authorities said that evidence found in the car absolved the youth of any involvement in the series of slayings. Detectives, however, would not describe the nature of that evidence.

It was the second incident so far this week in which authorities initially thought that they were close to the thin, gap-toothed suspect with curly hair believed responsible for at least seven slayings and as many as 13 rapes and beatings since March in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

In nearly every incident, people have been attacked in unfenced, poorly lighted homes by a man who sneaks through unlocked doors and windows.

On Monday night, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy walked into a pizza parlor on Lake Avenue in Pasadena and spotted a man resembling the widely circulated composite drawing of the intruder. The deputy called for help and other deputies soon arrived, Deputy John Broussard, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said.

The man, identified as Gregory Raul Gayon, 46, was ordered outside. As he left, Gayon allegedly attempted to pull a pistol from his pants and the deputies disarmed him, Broussard said. Gayon was taken into custody on weapons-related charges.

While arresting deputies were hopeful that they had captured the intruder, investigators from a multiagency police task force working on the case soon eliminated Gayon as a suspect.

‘No Coorelation’

“It seems that there was no correlation between either of these two suspects and the Valley Intruder,” said San Marino Police Capt. Jack Yeske.

In addition to the drawing, made from information provided by survivors and witnesses to the intruder’s attacks, the Sheriff’s Department, which is coordinating the investigation, has received nearly 1,000 tips from citizens, many of whom are convinced they have seen the man.

“We are running into a lot of people who do bear a resemblance” to the drawing, Broussard said. “The sightings are becoming more and more common, and calls for service are up 10% to 50% throughout the sheriff’s jurisdiction. All of the stations are extremely busy because every one of those calls is considered a priority.”

Meanwhile, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously voted to expand its $10,000 intruder reward fund by accepting private donations. Under the plan, approved on a 3-0 vote, money deposited in the fund would be paid for information leading to the intruder’s arrest and conviction.