Suspect in Two Slayings Has Record in Ky.

Kentucky law officials said Sunday that a suspect in the strangulation slayings of two young Southern California women is from a small town in eastern Kentucky and has a police record for theft.

Kentucky officers, however, said they had nothing to link the suspect, James Gregory Marlow, 30, and his alleged accomplice, Cynthia Lynn Coffman, 24, to any unsolved murder in Kentucky.

Redlands police have said Marlow and Coffman gave a statement about killing a man in Kentucky before coming to California.

The couple were arrested Friday in Big Bear City, a lakeside community in the San Bernardino Mountains, for the kidnap and slaying last week of Lynel Murray, 19, of Huntington Beach and the Nov. 7 abduction and murder of Corinna D. Novis, 20, of Redlands. On Saturday, Coffman took Redlands police to a shallow grave site in a Fontana vineyard, where Novis’ fully clothed body was found bound and gagged. Both women had been robbed before they were killed, authorities have said.

Marlow is formerly of Whitley City in eastern Kentucky. Kentucky State Police at the London, Ky., station, which serves the Whitley City area, said Sunday that they had been notified by California authoritiesabout Marlow’s alleged confession to a Kentucky murder.

“All we have is a nickname of a possible murder victim, and we can’t make any connection right now,” Kentucky State Police Sgt. Glen Dalton said Sunday in a telephone interview. “There are lots of people with that nickname, but we don’t have any unsolved murder that we know of with a person of this nickname.”

Dalton declined to reveal the nickname of the alleged murder victim.

He confirmed, however, that Marlow is from Whitley City and has an arrest record for theft in that area.

“He’s been the subject of minor arrests, for things like theft,” Dalton said. “We’ve been told that the car they (Marlow and Coffman) drove out there to California was stolen from Kentucky.”

Whitley City, a small town (population 1,683) in the mountainous coal-mining area of eastern Kentucky, is the county seat of McCreary County.

Constable Buck Bradley of the McCreary County Sheriff’s Office in Whitley City said in a telephone interview Sunday that he had known Marlow for about 12 years. “He had a good family, but he ended up bad,” Bradley said.

“One time he robbed a jug store--a place where they sell milk here--and he holed up in the hills after that.”

As for an alleged murder in Kentucky, Bradley said, “What he’s telling you people may be true. It’s possible it’s true.” But he acknowledged that the sheriff’s office has no immediate unsolved murder or missing-person case that might be connected to Marlow.

Bradley said Marlow and a young woman returned to Kentucky this past summer. The woman may have been Coffman, but Bradley said he was not sure.

“He (Marlow) has had a lot of girls,” Bradley said.

Details of Marlow’s prior arrests and convictions were not available Sunday.

No Capital Crimes

But Dalton, of the Kentucky State Police, said Marlow’s arrest record didn’t show any capital crimes, such as murder or attempted murder.

Redlands police said that neither Marlow nor Coffman has a permanent address. Coffman’s background could not be clarified Sunday, but one Kentucky police official said he believes that she also is a native of the McCreary County area.

Marlow and Coffman were being held in the Redlands jail Sunday on suspicion of the kidnap and murder of Novis, who was found dead after she responded to their plea for a ride in front of the Redlands Mall on Nov. 7.

Lynel Murray was kidnaped Wednesday evening as she was preparing to close the Prime Cleaners at 9932 Hamilton Ave., Huntington Beach, where she worked. The body of the Golden West College student was found Thursday afternoon in the Huntington Beach Inn, a beachfront motel not far from where she was abducted.

Died of Strangulation

Huntington Beach police said Sunday that an Orange County coroner’s autopsy had determined positively that Murray died of strangulation. Funeral services for her are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. today at La Habra Hills Presbyterian Church, to be followed by a private burial.

Novis also was strangled, Redlands officers said.

Marlow’s sister, Veronica Kay Koppers, 27, of Colton, and a family friend, Richard Drinkhouse, 28, of Fontana, were arrested Thursday night as suspected accessories in the Novis kidnaping and slaying, Redlands police said.

Paul Koppers, husband of Veronica Kay Koppers, said Sunday that his wife is innocent.

“She’s not mixed up in this at all . . ., “ Paul Koppers said in a telephone interview from San Bernardino, where he is staying with a relative.

“I talked to her at the jail,” he said. “She’s very upset. She doesn’t have a lawyer.”

Koppers said his wife’s brother, Marlow, “is the only family she’s got.” He said he has known Marlow for a long time. When asked if he were surprised that Marlow had been arrested for a serious crime, Koppers responded, “Not really,” but did not elaborate.

He said that Drinkhouse, who is married, is a family friend. But he added that he knew nothing about his brother-in-law’s companion, Coffman.

Huntington Beach police declined Sunday to discuss their investigation of the case. And officers in Redlands said they would have no update on their investigation until today, when police are expected to release a statement.

Marlow and Coffman allegedly used Murray’s credit card when they registered Friday at a lodge in Big Bear Lake, a resort in San Bernardino County. They were arrested without incident shortly afterwards.

‘May Be More’

On Saturday, Redlands Police Chief Robert Brickley said Novis and Murray were the victims of “premeditated, cold, calculated” killings. He added that “there may be more” murders connected with Marlow and Coffman.

The pair allegedly told police of a plan they had to murder a pregnant woman in Phoenix. They also allegedly confessed to having murdered a man in Kentucky.

In Orange County, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. James G. Enright said Sunday that he would seek to bring the couple to the county for arraignment in the Huntington Beach case as soon as possible. But he could not say when that would be until he meets with his staff today.

Enright said he expects the couple to be returned to Redlands immediately after arraignment in Orange County, but that authorities in both areas would work cooperatively in their investigations.

“The most important thing right now is for our two communities to work together and keep communications open,” Enright said.

He said he did not expect any kind of jurisdictional fight between Orange and San Bernardino counties over which case would be prosecuted first because “the defense lawyers will have the final say on which trial would be held first anyway.”