Bloody Sheets Allegedly Link Pair in Duerr Slaying

Police have seized bloodstained sheets and linens that they believe link both a longtime boyfriend and a high-school acquaintance with last week’s stabbing death of Denise Marie Duerr of Garden Grove, court documents revealed Wednesday.

Search warrant affidavits indicate that Duerr, 22, was fatally stabbed with an ice pick at least 14 times in or near her own apartment, then wrapped in bloodstained sheets, put in the trunk of her 1984 Fiero and dumped in the hills near Corona.

Charged in Duerr’s murder are Cameron C. Seaholm, 22, a drifter who knew the victim in high school, and Clyde Spontak, 22, of Garden Grove, a friend of Seaholm’s who lived with Duerr on and off during a stormy 6-year relationship. Police have not established a motive for the slaying.

The documents filed in Superior Court in Riverside also include a statement by Seaholm that he and Spontak had planned to sell a quarter-kilogram of cocaine about the time of the killing. The cocaine was in Spontak’s possession, Seaholm’s statement says.

In the statement to police, Seaholm acknowledged dumping the body but insisted that he had nothing to do with the slaying. He said he stole Duerr’s car while coming down from a cocaine high and found the victim’s partially decomposed and still-bleeding body only after the car got a flat tire and he had to open the trunk.

An Orange County firefighter confirmed that he saw a Fiero with tire trouble at the approximate spot and time cited by Seaholm, court records show.

But investigators said they they do not believe the rest of Seaholm’s explanation. “We’ve got some other evidence that I can’t talk about that would seem to shoot

down that story,” said Sgt. David Weiss of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

“We’ve shown a lot of inconsistencies in his story so far, and we think (Seaholm and Spontak) were both involved in the murder,” Weiss said.

Investigators said it was inconsistency in Spontak’s story that also led them to suspect the boyfriend in the killing.

After Duerr’s partially clad body was found April 19 near the Riverside Freeway south of Corona, Spontak grieved openly and said he had last seen his girlfriend alive as she headed for work one morning a few days before.

But investigators said contradictory evidence was uncovered Saturday in a search of the Garden Grove apartment that Spontak shared with Duerr. At the Monroe Street apartment, police found what appeared to be bloodstains on a mattress, the mattress cover and the garage floor. Bloodied sheets had earlier been found in the car.

Laboratory tests comparing the blood samples to Duerr’s blood type have not been completed, police said.

Investigators also hoped to find at the apartment the ice pick used in the slaying but came up empty handed, court documents show. Nonetheless, investigators said they were so convinced by the evidence uncovered in the search that they arrested Spontak on suspicion of murder 6 hours after entering the apartment Saturday.

Arraignment Wednesday

Arraignment for both Spontak, a sound electrician, and Seaholm is scheduled for Wednesday in Riverside County Municipal Court in Corona.

In addition to evidence found at the apartment, a neighbor has acknowledged that, at the request of Spontak, he lied to police about having seen Spontak kiss Duerr goodby on the morning of her disappearance, Riverside Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel C. Lough said Wednesday.

In the statement to police, Seaholm said that for virtually the entire weekend just before he stole Duerr’s car to visit his stepparents’ home in Lake Elsinore, he had stayed high on cocaine that he had stolen from Spontak.

His statement said that Seaholm and Spontak had spent much of that weekend packing for resale a quarter-kilo of cocaine.

Police said that amount of cocaine would carry a street value of about $4,000.