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Grief-Stricken Boyfriend of Slain Woman Seized in Case

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Times Staff Writers

A Garden Grove man who wept openly last week as he talked to police and reporters about the brutal murder of his girlfriend has been arrested and accused of helping to kill her, authorities said Monday.

Clyde Spontak is being held in the Riverside County Jail, accused of helping another man stab 21-year-old Denise Marie Duerr 20 times before dumping her partly clad body near Corona.

Cameron Seaholm, 22, a transient who attended high school with Spontak and Duerr, was arrested last week after he was discovered driving Duerr’s car.

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Spontak lamented the death of Duerr, who he described as “the sweetest woman that ever lived.” He shared an apartment with Duerr, and he angrily questioned what could possibly have driven his friend, Seaholm, to murder her.

But investigators said they eyed him as a suspect from the outset.

“He just seemed patently unconvincing,” said Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel C. Lough.

After obtaining a search warrant, officers from Garden Grove and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department went to the Garden Grove apartment Spontak had shared with Duerr, interrupting a Saturday evening neighborhood barbecue.

Spontak sat calmly on a sofa--an open bottle of champagne and newspaper stories about the murder in view--as more than a dozen officers scoured the premises for six hours, recovering evidence that investigators believe links Spontak to the crime, Lough said. He declined to give any details.

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

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

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Investigators said they focused on Spontak’s possible role in the killing for a variety of reasons.

They cited apparent contradictions in his accounts of his whereabouts prior to Duerr’s disappearance April 17, his rocky and sometimes-violent six-year relationship with her and the possibility that he may have been the last person to see her before she disappeared.

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

Investigators say they have not determined a motive, where Duerr was killed or who stabbed her to death.

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