Transient Denies Murdering Woman
A drifter accused of murdering a Northern California woman pleaded innocent Thursday at his arraignment in Municipal Court. The defendant is also a suspect in the deaths of three San Diego County women.
Alan (Buzzard) Stevens, 46, is charged with killing Cynthia McVey, whose strangled body was discovered Nov. 29 off California 76 on the Pala Indian Reservation.
San Diego Municipal Judge H. Ronald Domnitz set a preliminary hearing for Feb. 14 and allowed bail to remain at $250,000.
McVey was vacationing in San Diego County from Livermore when she disappeared in November. She was last seen alive in a Carlsbad bar.
Authorities have said that Stevens is a suspect in the slayings of at least three other women in East County and North County. But on Thursday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Rogers declined to discuss the evidence against Stevens.
The 350-pound, 6-foot-5-inch Stevens, described by police as a transient, was living in his van near a business in San Marcos before his arrest.
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