Two Youths Arrested in Slaying of 60-Year-Old Rossmoor Man

Orange County Sheriff’s homicide investigators have arrested two youths on suspicion of murdering a 60-year-old Rossmoor man whose body was found last week stuffed in the trunk of his car.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested at Washington High School in Los Angeles at 1 p.m. Monday, and a 17-year-old boy was arrested nine hours later at his home in West Covina, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Both youths, whose names were withheld because of their age, are being held at Juvenile Hall, Olson said.

The body of Richard William Hopking, 60, was found Feb. 18 in the trunk of his Cadillac in Compton, Olson said.

He was reported missing the night before when his girlfriend, Priscilla Roberts, 39, returned to the home they shared and found blood on the floor with Hopking and her 16-year-old daughter gone, Olson said.

Neighbors said they saw two young men with the daughter at the home earlier that day, while Hopking was outside mowing the lawn. The youths had met the daughter about two weeks earlier at a Cerritos shopping center and were frequent visitors to the neighborhood, neighbors said.

The daughter sped away in Hopking’s Cadillac with one of the young men late on the afternoon of the 18th, neighbors said.

The daughter was unharmed and is staying with relatives, Olson said, declining to explain whether she was abducted by the killers or whether she knew them.

“The case is still under investigation,” Olson said, declining to discuss motives for the slaying.