2 Charged in Death of Woman; Details of Case Announced

Kidnaping and murder charges were filed Tuesday in Orange County Municipal Court against transients James Gregory Marlow, 30, and Cynthia Lynn Coffman, 24, in the strangulation killing of 19-year-old college student Lynel Murray of Huntington Beach.

Meanwhile, court papers filed in the case also revealed that, at about the same time that Miss Murray was kidnaped from her workplace, another woman outside the building was approached by Coffman, who asked her for a ride. The woman, whose identity was not disclosed, at first agreed but quickly changed her mind when she sensed that “something was wrong with the situation,” according to an affidavit filed by Huntington Beach Police Detective Richard Hooper.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard F. Toohey said he will seek the death penalty because the murder occurred in the course of burglary, robbery, rape and the kidnaping of Miss Murray on Nov. 12 from the Huntington Beach dry cleaning store where she worked.

An arrest warrant will be forwarded to San Bernardino County Jail, where Marlow and Coffman are being held without bail pending a preliminary hearing Jan. 16 for the kidnaping and murder of insurance clerk Corrina D. Novis, 20, of Redlands, who was abducted on Nov. 7 from a Redlands shopping mall parking lot, Toohey said.

“There was a kidnap in both cases, a robbery in both cases, strangulation in both cases,” Toohey said of the crimes.

Toohey said Miss Murray was gagged and strangled with “some sort of toweling” and her body left in the Huntington Beach Inn, where it was found the next day.

Hooper’s affidativit said that an autopsy “determined that the victim had been strangled with such force that only someone of great strength could have killed her.” Authorities have identified the muscular Marlow as a body builder.

According to Hooper’s affidavit, Marlow and Coffman left a trail of evidence in their wake that authorities used to link them with Miss Murray’s abduction and murder.

Hooper’s affidavit quotes an unidentified woman who told police that Coffman approached her outside the cleaner’s and asked for a ride at 6:30 p.m., about the time that Miss Murray is believed to have been kidnaped from inside the establishment, the affidavit said.

The woman, a patron of an adjacent health club, “realized something was wrong,” Hooper said, and “she became fearful for her safety.”

Hooper said the woman told police she walked from her car when Coffman approached her a second time to say that she no longer needed a ride “because other help would be obtained.” She later identified Coffman as the woman who approached her.

Later that night when Miss Murray was reported missing, police found money missing from the cash register at the cleaner’s, but the victim’s car was still parked behind the building, the affidavit said.

“There was an indication of a slight struggle inside,” Hooper wrote.

Miss Murray’s bound, blindfolded and clothed body was found the next day in a half-filled bathtub at the Huntington Beach motel, where a desk clerk identified Coffman as the woman who had checked in using Miss Murray’s credit card and wearing a dress that was later determined to be stolen from the cleaner’s, the affidavit said.

Police also determined that the kidnapers used Miss Murray’s automatic bank teller card to withdraw money at a Corona del Mar Bank of America less than four hours after her abduction. And a man and woman matching Marlow’s and Coffman’s descriptions checked into the Compri Hotel in Ontario on Nov. 13 using the dead woman’s credit card, the affidavit said.

The same couple used her credit card to eat at a nearby restaurant and to check into the Bavarian Inn in Big Bear City, according to the affidavit. In a search of the room rented there, police found Marlow’s California driver license, clothing stolen from the cleaner’s and photographs of Coffman, the affidavit said.

When Marlow and Coffman were arrested, according to the affidavit, they were wearing clothes they had purchased with Miss Murray’s credit card, and “Neutrogena shampoo” missing from the Huntington Beach motel room was recovered in Coffman’s possession, the affidavit said.

Toohey described Coffman as an accomplice in Miss Murray’s rape but said she directly participated in the abduction, robbery and burglary. Six felony charges each were filed in Orange County against Marlow and Coffman for murder, kidnaping for robbery, kidnaping, burglary, robbery and rape.

No date has been set for arraignment on the Orange County charges. Toohey said he does not know yet whether the Orange County case will go to trial before the San Bernardino County case has concluded.

After their arrest Nov. 14 near Big Bear Lake, Marlow and Coffman led authorities to Miss Novis’ body in a shallow grave in a Fontana vineyard.

Toohey said Marlow’s sister, Veronica Kay Koppers, 27, and Richard Henry Drinkhouse, 28, who face charges in connection with the Novis murder, have not been charged in the Murray kidnaping and murder.

“Their (Koppers’ and Drinkhouse’s) conduct does not bear on the case in Orange County,” Toohey said.

Koppers faces trial in San Bernardino County Superior Court as an accessory to the Novis murder, as well as for felony false imprisonment and receiving stolen property. Drinkhouse has pleaded innocent to charges of kidnaping for robbery and false imprisonment in connection with the Novis case and awaits his preliminary hearing.