Ex-Convict, Woman Arrested in Slaying of College Student

A tattooed ex-convict and his female companion were arrested near Big Bear Lake Village Friday as suspects in the abduction and slaying of a Huntington Beach college student and the abduction of a Redlands woman who is still missing, law enforcement authorities said.

James Gregory Marlow, 30, and Cynthia Lynn Coffman, 24, were arrested about 3 p.m. Friday after a 15-hour search in the San Bernardino Mountains involving 100 law enforcement officers. They were found walking in the Sugarloaf community east of Big Bear Lake, authorities said.

Huntington Beach and Redlands police spokesmen refused to explain in detail how they linked Marlow and Coffman to the killing of 19-year-old Lynel Murray of Huntington Beach and the disappearance of Corinna D. Novis of Redlands. But a Redlands police spokesman said that the two had been seen driving Novis’ car after her disappearance.

Money Withdrawn From Bank

Police said robbery was believed to be the motive in both cases. Money was missing from the Huntington Beach dry-cleaning shop from which Murray disappeared Wednesday night, and her family said her bank card was used to withdraw money a few hours later from a Newport Beach branch of her bank. Redlands police said Novis, a 20-year-old clerk in a Redlands State Farm Insurance office, had just withdrawn money a week ago Friday from her bank when she was disappeared.

A nationwide alert had been broadcast late Thursday for Marlow and Coffman, who had given addresses in Barstow when San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies arrested them April 5 for allegedly driving a stolen car. Authorities said Friday that the couple had frequented the San Bernardino-Riverside area, but they believe Marlow and Coffman have been transients, living in a number of spots throughout the country.

Pair May Have Hitchhiked

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesman James Bryant said the pair may have hitchhiked to the mountain community and may have arrived there as recently as Friday. He said he did not know if they were armed.

But Redlands Police Capt. Lewis Nelson said Coffman and Marlow were considered extremely dangerous. He said they had been linked several days ago to the abduction of Novis but would not elaborate.

He did say, however, that after they were linked to the Novis case, it was “learned they were traveling in the Orange Coast area, in Laguna Niguel then Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach. On Thursday morning they returned to San Bernardino still in possession of Novis’ vehicle.”

“These are not the Waltons,” Nelson said, referring to the wholesome family depicted in the now-defunct television series by the same name.

“I don’t think Bonnie and Clyde were quite this brutal,” added Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Bill Van Cleve.

Coffman and Marlow were held on suspicion of murder at the Sheriff’s Department Big Bear substation and then transported late Friday to the Redlands City Jail for interrogation, Bryant said. Huntington Beach police investigators were in Redlands to question them Friday night.

In Huntington Beach, word of the arrests reached the Murray family late Friday.

“The neighbors came over to congratulate us after they heard the news,” said Stacey Murray, 17, who on Friday quit her job at a Hamilton Avenue dry-cleaning shop across the street from where her slain sister had worked. “We’re all just coping.”

Huntington Beach police refused to say Friday how Murray was killed, saying dissemination of that information might hamper their continuing murder investigation.

Murray was found dead Thursday in a Huntington Beach motel.

Car Found in Mountains

In the hours before the arrests Friday, an all-points law enforcement bulletin had been issued after Novis’ 1986 white Honda CRX was located in the Big Bear area at 11:15 p.m. Thursday by Redlands police officers investigating her disappearance, Nelson said.

Two other people allegedly involved in the Novis case--a man and a woman--were arrested in the Rialto-Fontana area between 9 p.m. and midnight Thursday, Nelson said. He identified them as Veronica Kay Coppers, 27, of Colton and Richard Drinkhouse, 28, of Fontana. Nelson said they were being held on suspicion of being accessories to a kidnaping. Nelson would not discuss how the two were linked to Novis’ disappearance.

Before the arrests, Nelson described Marlow as having tattoos on his chest, back and arms--including a swastika on his right shoulder--and said he commonly wears fatigue pants and white T-shirts. He characterized Coffman as “extremely thin,” with dark brown hair worn in a very short crew cut and said she is known to wear jeans and T-shirts.

However, on Thursday, Marlow and Coffman were seen in the San Bernardino area, he wearing a blue suit and she a gray dress and blue shoes. The owner of Prime Cleaners in Huntington Beach, where Murray worked, said he discovered Thursday morning that men’s and women’s clothes were missing from the shop after Murray disappeared from there Wednesday evening.

Hooshang Movafaghi said he found hangers and plastic bags lying on the floor in the back of his shop. After checking inventory sheets, he discovered that two women’s sweaters, a black and white dress, a men’s light blue two-piece suit, a tie and two dress shirts were missing.

Murray, a sophomore at Golden West College in Huntington Beach who worked part time at the dry-cleaning shop, was reported missing Wednesday night by her boyfriend, 19-year-old Rob Whitecotton, who became concerned when she did not come home from work as planned. He said he drove to Prime Cleaners, found it locked and dark and discovered her unlocked car parked behind the shop.

At 3:36 p.m. Thursday, a maid entering Room 307 at the Huntington Beach Inn on Pacific Coast Highway found a woman’s body, police said.

By 9 p.m., investigators had identified the victim as Murray and notified her family.

A source at the motel who asked not be identified said Thursday night that he believed two women had checked into Room 307, possibly Wednesday. That source could not elaborate, and police would not comment.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Marlow was convicted of two counts of robbery in 1980 for crimes in Santa Clara and San Bernardino counties and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was paroled to the San Bernardino area on May 1, 1983, a Corrections Department spokeswoman said, and was discharged from the parole on May 31, 1984.

On April 5, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies arrested Marlow and Coffman for allegedly driving a stolen car, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Bryant said. He said Marlow was charged with auto theft, and Coffman was charged with possession of narcotics, a charge that subsequently was dropped.

It was not immediately known whether Marlow still faces the auto theft charge, Bryant added.

Times staff writers Karen Kucher and Louis Sahagun contributed to this story.