Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : AT THE SCENE : Pair Plead Not Guilty in Death of Young Woman

While details of the abduction and killing of two Southern California women were coming to light last week, two prime suspects offered not guilty pleas and were held without bail in San Bernardino County Jail.

Funerals for the two victims--20-year-old Corinna D. Novis of Redlands and 19-year-old Lynel Murray of Huntington Beach--were also held last week in La Habra, Redlands, and in Miss Novis’ hometown of Gooding, Ida.

James Gregory Marlow, 30, and Cynthia Lynn Coffman, 24, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder, kidnaping and other charges relating to the Nov. 7 disappearance and death of Miss Novis.

The young woman’s body was discovered in a shallow grave in Fontana.

Marlow and Coffman, arrested Nov. 14 in Big Bear City area, are also the prime suspects in the death of Lynel Murray, a student at Golden West College.

Miss Murray was kidnaped Nov. 12 from her job at a dry-cleaning store. A day later, she was found, strangled, in a Huntington Beach motel room. Officials in Orange County were still preparing charges in that case.

Huntington Beach police also sent a memorandum to investigators in five Southern California counties, detailing the two recent cases, to aid in investigating any similar, unsolved murders.

According to that memo, Miss Novis was kidnaped at gunpoint after refusing to give her assailants a ride from a shopping mall to the University of Redlands. She was driven to Fontana, sexually assaulted, strangled and buried in a shallow grave.

The suspects allegedly drove Miss Novis’ car to her apartment and stole several household items that they later sold for drugs, the memo said. Marlow and Coffman then drove to the central Orange County coast, the police memo said, allegedly scouting for another victim.

In Huntington Beach, the suspects allegedly kidnaped Miss Murray from her workplace and took her to a beachfront motel, where she was found bound and gagged, face down in a bathtub full of water.

After allegedly killing Miss Murray, the pair went to Ontario and rented a motel room with her credit card. The next day, they abandoned Miss Novis’ car in Running Springs and cleaned it of fingerprints, the memo recounted, then hitchhiked to the Big Bear area, where they were arrested.

Police said Marlow and Coffman are transients who lived primarily in Southern California and Arizona. The Huntington Beach police memo also described them as heavy users of methamphetamines.

A funeral Mass was said Tuesday for Miss Novis in Redlands, where she had moved eight months ago to be with her boyfriend, a student at the University of Redlands. Her body was then flown to her family’s home in Gooding, Ida., for another funeral service on Thursday.

Miss Murray’s funeral was held Monday in La Habra.