Anaheim : Police Name Suspect in Slaying of Couple

A Compton man is being sought in connection with the murder of a couple discovered shot to death after one of their children notified a neighbor that something was wrong with her mother.

Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth said detectives gathered enough evidence to obtain an arrest warrant charging 25-year-old Rudolph Benjamin with two counts of homicide in connection with the deaths of Louis Arturo Herrera, 24, and his girlfriend, Diane Swarbrick, 23, of South Knott Avenue. Hedgpeth said detectives do not know Benjamin’s whereabouts and want the public’s help in finding him.

He said they believe that Benjamin is one of two suspects responsible for the slayings.

“We have strong indications that at least Louis Herrera and probably Diane Swarbrick knew Benjamin,” he said. “We don’t know who the other suspect is.”

The couple’s bodies were found shortly after 1 p.m. May 31, but detectives believe that the deaths may have occurred the night before. Herrera had been shot three times in the head, and Swarbrick was shot twice in the chest, police said. They were discovered when one of the couple’s two children, who apparently spent the night in the apartment with the bodies, wandered to a neighbor’s apartment, police said. Hedgpeth said he believes that the children are now living with their paternal grandparents.

Hedgpeth said that investigators are not yet sure of the motive in the killings but that drugs may have played a part. “There are certainly indications of that,” he said. “We can’t say positively yet.”

“We believe (Benjamin) is in the area,” Hedgpeth said. He said Benjamin is 5-foot-6, weighs 190 pounds, is black and has black hair and brown eyes.

The other suspect, Hedgpeth said, is a black male about 26 years old, 6-foot-2, weighs 165 pounds and has black curly hair.