The Region : Captured Convict Suspected in 2 Deaths

A prison escapee captured in Santa Barbara is the prime suspect in the stabbing deaths of two local women and an attack on another, police said. Wayne R. Noe, 23, was arrested in the Storke Plaza area by a task force of police and state corrections officers. Although Noe has not been booked in the deaths, Lt. Don Williams said, “Investigators feel that the immediate danger of additional victims . . . has been successfully curtailed.” Noe, sentenced in 1983 to life plus 12 years for a string of robbery and knife assaults in the San Diego area, faces possible murder charges in the deaths of Virginia Aceves, 55, of Montecito and Nancy Croom, 36, of Santa Barbara. They and a woman identified as Kimi Hanzei, 21, of Santa Barbara, were attacked near the downtown area. Noe escaped from California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo on March 1 by impersonating another inmate, prison officials said.