Eluded Manhunt Friday : Murder Suspect Tied to Other Area Crimes

A San Diego murder suspect who eluded police dogs, three helicopters and 150 policemen during a late-night manhunt Friday has been linked to the slayings of a Del Mar Heights family and 13 other violent crimes in the San Diego area.

Police said Monday that Billy Ray Waldon, 33, is a suspect in the Dec. 7 slayings of a 42-year-old Del Mar Heights woman and her 13-year-old daughter. Their bodies were burned in a house fire that authorities believe was set to cover up the killings, police said.

Other crimes linked to Waldon, police said, include a rape and a car theft that occurred Friday, less than 90 minutes after he is suspected of shooting and killing Charles Gordon Wells of University Heights.

Homicide Lt. Paul Ybarrondo said Monday that Waldon, who is still at large, is believed to have left the state.

A former Navy man stationed in San Diego, Waldon is known to have friends and relatives in Los Angeles, Texas and Oklahoma, but there were no leads on where he may be, Ybarrondo added.

Waldon is suspected of killing Wells, a 59-year-old retired carpenter, in the garage behind his home at 3972 Cleveland Ave., and seriously wounding John Copeland, 36, who lives in an apartment above the garage. An assailant wearing a ski mask shot the men with an automatic pistol as he ran through the neighborhood and later evaded police by fleeing into the steep canyons nearby.

During the manhunt, a man stole an El Camino truck at gunpoint from the 2900 block of 1st Avenue, Ybarrondo said.

The incidents leading up to the shooting began about 6 p.m. Friday when a woman was robbed in front of her home in the 1400 block of Van Buren Street. She reported to police that she struggled briefly with a man wearing a mask before he grabbed her purse and drove off in a silver Honda.

Weaving back and forth over the median, the man blew a tire on the Honda and abandoned the car in the Hillcrest area. While running from police, the man confronted Wells and Copeland. The Honda was registered to Waldon at a Los Angeles address, authorities said.

On Saturday, detectives said they searched the car and found pieces of identification, property and other evidence linking Waldon to the Dec. 7 slayings of Dawn Ellerman and her daughter, Erin. Ybarrondo said Monday that police found several pieces of computer hardware stolen from the house in Waldon’s car. Police said they found something in the Honda that may indicate how Ellerman and her daughter were killed, but they declined to comment further.

He also said that other things found in the car linked Waldon to three additional robbery cases--two in San Diego and one in Del Mar--as well as a rape case in San Diego.

Detectives are seeking a warrant charging Waldon with three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, seven counts of robbery, one count of arson, two counts of burglary, one count of rape and one count of receiving stolen property.

Waldon is described as 6-foot-2, white, weighing 160 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes and a mustache. He is considered to be armed and extremely dangerous.