Countywide : Woman, 20, Arrested in Slaying of Grandfather

A Garden Grove woman was arrested Thursday for allegedly participating in a plot to kill her grandfather.

Cynthia Marie Diebolt, 20, is the fifth person to be arrested in the killing of retired stockbroker David Werner, 72, who was found in his Mission Viejo home on April 16, suffocated and with a knife plunged through his neck.

Diebolt’s mother, Deborah Ann Werner, 40, was arrested six days after the murder and charged with hiring others to kill Werner, who was her father. The daughter allegedly participated in that plan, said sheriff’s spokesman Richard J. Olson.

Charles L. Clemmons, Miguel Ruiz and Carrie Mae Chidester were also arrested, but Ruiz, 21, of Garden Grove, was released several days later for lack of evidence, Olson said.

Diebolt was arrested at 12:55 a.m. Thursday after being interviewed by deputies at the Sheriff’s Department, Olson said.

Olson refused to elaborate on the information that led to Diebolt’s arrest. She was booked on one count of solicitation to commit murder and was held in lieu of $75,000 bail, he said.

Deborah Ann Werner allegedly hired Chidester, 20, of Huntington Beach, and her boyfriend, Clemmons, 20, of Anaheim, to kill her father so she could collect an inheritance of several hundred thousand dollars.