Boyfriend Arrested as an Accomplice in Denise Duerr Death

Robert Clyde Spontak wept openly last week as he talked with police investigators and reporters about the brutal killing of his girlfriend, Denise Marie Duerr of Garden Grove--”the sweetest woman that ever lived.”

On Monday, the 22-year-old Garden Grove man sat in the Riverside County Jail, accused of acting in concert with a high school friend to stab the 21-year-old Duerr 20 times, then dump her partially clad body in the hills near Corona.

Last Thursday, authorities arrested Cameron Seaholm, a 22-year-old transient who went to high school with both Spontak and Duerr, in connection with the killing after he was discovered driving Duerr’s car. At the time, Spontak lamented the death of his live-in girlfriend and angrily sought to understand what had motivated the actions of his friend Seaholm.

But investigators say they never believed the boyfriend’s display of grief and kept an eye on him from the outset as a suspect in Duerr’s killing.

“He just seemed patently unconvincing,” Riverside Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel C. Lough said of Spontak, who was arrested on suspicion of murder

early Sunday morning.

On Saturday evening, armed with a search warrant, Garden Grove police and Riverside County sheriff’s deputies went to the Garden Grove apartment that Spontak had shared with Duerr, interrupting a neighborhood barbecue.

For the next 6 hours, they combed through the apartment and recovered evidence that investigators allege links Spontak to the crime, Lough said. He refused to discuss the evidence seized.

During the search, Spontak sat calmly on a sofa as more than a dozen law enforcement officers scoured the apartment, an open bottle of champagne and newspaper stories about the murder in view, Lough said.

“He was just waiting it out until the moment we arrested him (about 3:30 a.m. Sunday),” said Lt. Nick Padilla of the Riverside Sheriff’s Department. “Then he became very emotional for a minute, then suddenly regained his composure.”

Police handcuffed Spontak and led him outside in the view of shocked neighbors, many of whom had tried to comfort him.

Investigators said that as soon as Duerr’s partially clothed body was found last Wednesday in a brush-covered area just off the Riverside Freeway at the edge of the Santa Ana Mountains, they focused on Spontak’s possible role in the killing for a variety of reasons.

They cited apparent contradictions in his whereabouts in the hours leading up to Duerr’s disappearance last Monday, his rocky and sometimes violent 6-year relationship with Duerr, and the fact that he may have been the last person to see Duerr before she disappeared last week.

“It all just made you very, very suspicious,” Padilla said.

‘A Lot Left to Figure Out’

Investigators say they have still not determined a motive for the slaying, where she was killed, or the actual murderer. “We still have a lot left to figure out on this one,” Lough said.

But law enforcement officials alleged Monday that they have enough evidence to show that Spontak acted in concert with Seaholm to carry out the crime.

Spontak’s arrest shocked neighbors at his Garden Grove apartment complex, and even the victim’s mother reacted with disbelief.

Duerr’s mother, Mary Ellen Ducharme, said: “I have a hard time believing that he did it, unless it was an accident. . . . They had a stormy 6-year relationship on and off, but this time, when Denise went back to live with (Spontak), it was different. He treated her well and they didn’t fight at all.”

Ducharme said that Spontak and Duerr had problems in the past and that Spontak occasionally hit the young woman, an assertion confirmed by police investigators.

“He was extremely jealous of her. He didn’t want her wearing short skirts and wanted her to call him whenever she went somewhere. But she promised me that he had changed and I think he did,” her mother said.

Ducharme said that Spontak called her after his arrest and “swore to me on the telephone that he had nothing to do with it and would never hurt her.”

Spontak is scheduled to be arraigned on murder charges Wednesday in Riverside County, law enforcement officials said.

Seahold in Court

Seaholm, who police allege was Spontak’s accomplice, appeared briefly Monday in Corona Municipal Court, but his arraignment was postponed until next Monday.

During parts of the proceeding, he appeared exasperated and shook his head as he sat in custody in the jury box. But at other times, he flashed a brief smile toward his mother, estranged wife and family friends in the courtroom audience.

Seaholm’s family and his Santa Ana defense attorney maintained his innocence Monday, and pointed to Spontak’s arrest as affirmation that Seaholm did not kill Duerr.

“We know he’s innocent,” said his mother, Joanne Sandor of Santa Ana. While declining to discuss specifics of the case against her son, Sandor said: “She just was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately, Clyde (Spontak) is a friend of his.”

Seaholm’s defense attorney, Gary L. Proctor, said that Spontak’s arrest should show that his client was not involved in the murder.

Proctor acknowledged that Seaholm took Duerr’s car without permission, but he said that his client did not realize that the young woman’s body was in the car’s trunk. He added that he is hopeful that laboratory tests will conclude that stains found on Seaholm’s clothing were not, in fact, the victim’s blood.

Investigators already have confirmed that Duerr died as a result of 20 stab wounds to the upper body. A full autopsy report is not expected for several weeks, but prosecutor Lough said Monday that “certainly the torn state of her clothing would suggest a sexual attack.”

Times staff writer Jeff Mitchell contributed to this story.