Fugitive in 2 Missouri Slayings Captured

A fugitive suspected of killing two people two weeks ago in Kansas City has been captured in Lancaster, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said Tuesday.

Detectives from Kansas City, Mo., were en route to Los Angeles to question Lucky Vance Stancliff, 40, who was being held at the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station, authorities said.

Stancliff was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and car theft by deputies and California Highway Patrol officers in Lancaster Monday afternoon after he sideswiped several parked cars in a stolen Pontiac Fiero, authorities said.

The officers said they did not realize Stancliff was a fugitive until a records check showed he was suspected of killing his girlfriend and an elderly neighbor in Kansas City. The bodies were discovered April 8.

In December, Stancliff was paroled after serving 19 years in a Missouri state prison for a murder committed during a gas station robbery.

The latest slayings, committed less than four months after Stancliff’s parole, have been the subject of intense media coverage in Missouri, said Jean D’Agostino, a Kansas City Police Department spokeswoman.

Kansas City police said they will ask Stancliff to waive extradition, which would enable them to return him to Kansas City this week. If Stancliff decides to fight extradition, the hearing process could take two months, authorities said.

In Lancaster, sheriff’s Sgt. Joseph Dymerskie said the car Stancliff was driving at the time of his arrest had been stolen at a Sylmar campground Monday morning.

Stancliff was driving erratically on two flat tires and struck four parked cars in an area near the 20th Street West exit of the Antelope Valley Freeway, authorities said. He did not resist arrest, Dymerskie said.