SOUTHLAND : Boyfriend Held in Girl’s Slaying

A man who broke down and cried before television cameras when told of his girlfriend’s slaying was arrested in her death after investigators found traces of blood in the couple’s apartment, authorities said today.

Clyde Robert Spontak, 22, booked on suspicion of murder, was arrested early Sunday in the death of Denise Marie Duerr, 21.

“She was the only girlfriend I’ve ever had. I loved her,” Spontak cried when told Thursday that Duerr’s body had been found in a remote ditch off Green River Road.

But after traces of blood were discovered during a weekend search of the Garden Grove apartment the couple shared, Spontak was arrested, Riverside Sheriff’s Lt. Nick Padilla said.

“We got so many calls from people who had seen this guy (Spontak) on the news. They all said he wasn’t for real and that he was involved in the killing somehow,” Padilla said. “But until we got a search warrant and went in with investigators and district attorney’s office people, we didn’t have the evidence. We do now.”

An autopsy showed that Duerr, an aspiring actress who worked for Data Circuit in Orange, had been stabbed to death, Padilla said.

A friend of the couple’s, Cameron Seaholm, 22, was arrested on suspicion of murder two days after the body was found. Duerr’s car was found parked outside Seaholm’s Lake Elsinore home.