Man Cited in Attacks, Deaths of 2 Women

A palm print, a cigarette butt and the discovery of a bloodstained dress and towels in a San Fernando Valley storm drain are the evidence police are relying on to link a burglary suspect to the sexual assault and killing of two Canoga Park women, authorities said.

Robert Patrick Meyer, 27, of Canoga Park was charged Monday with murder in the slayings of Goldie McClelland, 87, who was found beaten and strangled in her home last October, and Helen Barry, 60, who was beaten with her own cane and strangled last month in her apartment, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christine Thurman said.

Meyer has been in County Jail since his arrest last week in an unrelated burglary, police said. He is scheduled to be arraigned today in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

In both slayings, Los Angeles Police Detective Duane Burris said, the intruder slipped through an unlocked window, beat the women and forced them to perform oral sex before strangling them with his hands.

With the exception of a dress and some towels taken from Mrs. Barry’s apartment and found in a storm drain two blocks from Meyer’s apartment, nothing of value appeared to have been taken in the break-ins, he said. “The motive was sex,” Burris said.

According to an affidavit attached to a search warrant for Meyer’s home, on file in Van Nuys Municipal Court, a package of Winston cigarettes was found near Mrs. McClelland’s bed in her home on Hanna Avenue and a Winston cigarette butt was discovered outside the window used to gain entrance to Mrs. Barry’s apartment on Valerio Street.

Lt. Bill Gaida said neither victim smoked cigarettes, but that Meyer regularly smoked Winstons.

But Gaida said the most important evidence police have is a palm print lifted from Mrs. Barry’s apartment and compared to an impression of Meyer’s hands.

“It was a perfect match,” he said.

The charges against Meyer carry special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murders committed in the act of burglaries and sexual assaults, which could result in a death sentence if Meyer is convicted.

Meyer also faces assault and burglary charges stemming from other recent San Fernando Valley break-ins, Thurman said.

Burris said he and his partner began considering Meyer a suspect in the killings last week when he was arrested for the second time in a month for allegedly attempting to break into Canoga Park apartments.

Meyer was first arrested Aug. 2 when a woman heard noises outside her residence and called police, who discovered him hiding in bushes behind the apartment, Burris said. Meyer, who had two earlier convictions for battery and trespassing, was arrested on suspicion of attempted burglary and assaulting a police officer and released on bail.

Meyer was arrested again Aug. 11 when he allegedly broke into an apartment, hid in a closet and assaulted a man who searched the residence at the request of the female occupant, Burris said. Meyer has remained in jail since his arrest.

In the two recent burglaries, Burris said, Meyer apparently entered or attempted to enter the apartments through a window, as was the case in the slayings of Mrs. McClelland and Mrs. Barry.