Slayings Suspect’s Arrest Record Detailed : Funeral Held for Lynel Murray of Huntington Beach

A Kentucky sheriff said Monday that he had arrested James Gregory Marlow, a suspect in two Southern California kidnap-murders, “at least 12 times,” including once for theft of a police car, burglary and possession of marijuana from 1978 to 1982.

And in a fit of anger this summer, Marlow shaved the head of a female companion he nicknamed “Sinful,” believed to be Cynthia Lynn Coffman, Sheriff Virgil Gibson of McCreary County, Ky., said in a telephone interview Monday.

Gibson said he was not aware that Marlow and his companion, Coffman, 24, had been arrested on suspicion of last week’s kidnaping and strangulation slaying of Lynel Murray, 19, of Huntington Beach and the Nov. 7 abduction and murder of Corinna D. Novis, 20, of Redlands.

A funeral service was held Monday afternoon for Miss Murray in La Habra.

Redlands Police Capt. Lewis W. Nelson said Monday that murder charges are expected to be filed today against Marlow and Coffman in the Novis death. Both were being held without bail Monday in Redlands City Jail.

Kentucky state police, investigating a report from Redlands police that Marlow allegedly claimed to have killed a man in Kentucky, have not yet been able to link the location and circumstances with any unsolved murders, State Police Sgt. Glen Dalton said.

Dalton also expressed doubt over the location of a body that the couple claimed to have buried in Kentucky because it supposedly was in an area well traveled by the public.

“We should have discovered it already,” Dalton said Monday.

The purported homicide was supposed to have occurred sometime this year in a county next to McCreary County, according to Dalton, who declined to reveal the alleged victim’s nickname provided by Redlands police.

Marlow, who was known by the nickname of “Squeeze,” is formerly from Whitley City, the McCreary County seat, which is in a rural area of southeastern Kentucky, Sheriff Gibson said.

Authorities have said that Marlow and Coffman frequented the San Bernardino-Riverside area as transients, living in a number of places. The couple gave a Barstow address after being arrested by San Bernardino County deputies on April 5 for driving a stolen car.

The car was reported stolen by Kathleen Marlow of Barstow, identified by a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesman as Marlow’s ex-wife. The spokesman said the charges were later dropped.

Suspect in Burglary

But Marlow is believed to have returned to Kentucky since then. Sheriff Gibson identified him as a suspect in the late September burglary of a Revero, Ky., auto repair shop in which Marlow is alleged to have stolen a car.

Few details of Marlow’s subsequent journey from the Kentucky backwoods to California were available, but the victim in the auto repair shop burglary said he was told by Kentucky authorities that Marlow drove the vehicle to Arizona with an unidentified woman.

People like Marlow “should be put away and never let out,” shop owner Sam Waters said Monday in a telephone interview.

Gibson said Marlow returned to Whitley City in 1979, then after a few years moved to Florida, where he allegedly stole a car and later returned to Kentucky.

Gibson did not know Coffman, or where she was from, except to identify her as Marlow’s companion on a visit to the Whitley City area this summer.

“We knew he had this woman whose nickname was ‘Sinful.’ Gregory (Marlow) used to keep her dressed up in old Army outfits. And he’s supposed to have gotten angry and shaved her hair off.”

Coffman was described by Huntington Beach and Redlands police as having a crew cut. In a photograph taken Friday after her arrest in Big Bear City, her hair was extremely close-cropped.

Dexter McKinney, the Kentucky state police detective assigned to McCreary County, said Marlow “has been suspect in many a drug operation in Kentucky.”

He said Marlow, who has several tattoos, is wanted in connection with a burglary in Whitley where a woman identified him from mug shots as the man she saw leaving her house where jewelry and a shotgun were stolen.

Marlow and Coffman were captured Friday in Big Bear City, a community in the San Bernardino Mountains. On Saturday, Coffman led Redlands police to a shallow grave site in a Fontana vineyard, where Miss Novis’ fully clothed body was found bound and gagged. Both she and Miss Murray had been robbed and then strangled, authorities said.

Redlands Police Chief Robert Brickley said Saturday that Marlow and Coffman had driven through southern Orange County “scouting” for victims last week before Miss Murray was kidnaped about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday. He also said that the couple were about to travel to Phoenix, where they already had selected a victim, a pregnant woman.

Redlands Police Capt. Nelson declined Monday to say how authorities were aware that Marlow and Coffman had been “scouting” for victims in Orange County.

Nelson said only that authorities “developed investigative information that they were in Orange County with the vehicle” stolen from Miss Novis when she was abducted Nov. 7 at the Redlands Mall. Her white Honda CRX was found abandoned near Santa’s Village in the San Bernardino Mountains early Friday.

Checking Their Itinerary

“We are still piecing together their itinerary,” Nelson said. “Their hometowns seem to be wherever they are in a given day.”

Marlow’s sister, Veronica Kay Koppers, 27, of Colton, and a family friend, Richard Drinkhouse, 28, of Fontana, were arrested Thursday night on suspicion of being accessories to the Novis kidnaping and slaying, police said.

Koppers and Drinkhouse are expected to be arraigned today, Nelson said.

Huntington Beach police were expected to meet Monday evening with representatives of the district attorney’s office to determine when Marlow and Coffman could be transported to Orange County for arraignment in connection with the Murray slaying.

At the funeral service Monday in La Habra, Miss Murray was eulogized by her boyfriend as a person “who never stopped giving” and who, by her death, may have “saved many lives.”

“Lynel to me was a loving girlfriend,” Rob Whitecotton told the more than 300 friends and family members who attended the 4 p.m. ceremony at La Habra Hills Presbyterian Church, where Miss Murray’s father, Donald Murray, is a deacon.

“I believe even her death was part of her giving,” Whitecotton said. “She may have saved many lives by this.”

The Rev. Jonathon H. Wilson told mourners: “We come here today in pain . . . but not for a morbid funeral.” He described the Golden West College student as “a special, attractive, vibrant girl.”

“She was always expecting other people to be as open as she was,” he said. “She had a hard time believing anyone would do anything mean to anyone else.”

“She was my best friend for eight years,” said Lori Ann Robeson, 19, one of dozens of the slain young woman’s friends who had driven from Huntington Beach, where Miss Murray had lived with her mother and sister.

“She helped me through a lot. I can’t say anything else,” she said, as she began to cry. “I just want to thank everyone and say goodby to Lynel.”

After the service, Miss Murray’s mother, Nancy, stood outside the church doors, clutching a single red rose and embracing friends.

The young woman’s body is to be cremated today.

Times staff writer Karen Kucher contributed to this story.