Kidnaped Girl’s Body Found in Motel Room

The body of Lynel Murray, a 19-year-old college student who police believe was kidnaped Wednesday from a dry-cleaning shop, was found Thursday afternoon in a Huntington Beach motel room, authorities said.

A maid who entered Room 307 at the Huntington Beach Inn found the body at 3:36 p.m., Huntington Beach Police Lt. Ed McErlain said. He refused to say how Murray might have died.

The victim was declared dead at the motel, which is on Pacific Coast Highway just south of the Huntington Beach Pier. Murray apparently was abducted from Prime Cleaners about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, as she was about to close the shop for the day.

Money was missing from the Hamilton Avenue shop, and police believe that robbery might have been the motive in the abduction and murder. McErlain would not say if cash or other receipts from the shop were found in the first-floor motel room with the body. Nor would he say who paid for the room.

Manager Won’t Comment

David S. Cornish, general manager of the motel, said he could not discuss the case.

McErlain said police have no suspect. He added, however, that they are aware of the arrest Thursday morning of Dion L. Marshall, 28, of Santa Ana, a suspect in several robberies of Orange County dry-cleaning shops, including one that occurred in Huntington Beach at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Garden Grove and San Marino police arrested Marshall in Santa Ana in connection with a robbery at a dry-cleaning shop in the 7700 block of Edinger Avenue in Huntington Beach and one at a home in San Marino. He is being held in Orange County Jail and is being investigated “by numerous Orange County and Los Angeles police departments for a variety of crimes,” according to the Garden Grove police.

“Other than that obvious connection--that those are dry cleaners and this is a dry cleaners,” McErlain said, “we have no other tie-in at this time. . . . It’s a possible connection we’re trying to investigate, but we haven’t tied it in beyond this spree of robberies.”

He would not elaborate, and Huntington Beach police refused to discuss many other aspects of their investigation, including a report by members of the victim’s family that investigators had a partial description of a suspect.

‘Trying to Hang In’

“There’s not a lot more we can do now,” Rob Whitecotton, Murray’s boyfriend of three years, said after hearing of her death. “We’re trying to hang in there, but it’s tough.”

In an interview before it was disclosed that Murray’s body had been found, the 19-year-old Whitecotton provided some details about what preceded the disappearance of his girlfriend, a psychology student at Golden West College whom he began dating when they both attended Edison High School.

He said he called Murray about 6:20 p.m. Wednesday at Prime Cleaners to finalize their plans for the evening. Murray was to close the shop as usual at 6:30 p.m. after cleaning up and emptying the cash register. They were to meet at her family’s condominium about 6:45 p.m. and watch a rented movie, he said.

As they talked, Whitecotton said, Murray indicated that there was a customer at the counter. But she did not cut short the conversation as she normally would when business was waiting, according to Whitecotton, who said he found that curious. He said he expected Murray home 25 minutes later.

When she did not arrive by 7:10 p.m., Whitecotton said, he drove to a nearby fast-food restaurant to see if she had stopped there, and then went to the storefront across the street where she worked.

“The store was locked and dark--the lights were all out--and her car was parked in the back,” Whitecotton said. Murray’s blue-and-white 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass “was unlocked,” he said. Her purse was not in it, Whitecotton said.

Inside the shop, which Whitecotton entered later with the owner, clothes were strewn about as though the place had been ransacked, he said.

Hooshang Movafaghi, owner of Prime Cleaners, said all the change--down to the last penny--was missing from an open cash register in what apparently was the store’s first robbery since he bought it five years ago. The bag containing the day’s cash, checks and other receipts was not in the spot where Murray usually hides it before leaving each night, he said.

The victim’s mother, Nancy Murray, 39, had chain-smoked cigarettes and drunk coffee all night Wednesday and throughout Thursday afternoon as her ex-husband, Donald Murray, 40, checked in by phone with the Police Department for updates. They were surrounded most of the day by loved ones.

As the 4 o’clock news flashed on the television, the command post of friends and volunteers circulating flyers shifted from the kitchen to the living room.

Nancy Murray, crying, watched herself on the screen and said: “She’s gone. I want her. She’s my baby.”

Times staff writers Roxana Kopetman and Ray Perez contributed to this story.