Neighbors Unite to Ponder Crime in Clairemont

City Councilman Bruce Henderson, whose district includes the Clairemont neighborhood where two young women have been stabbed to death in the past six weeks, said Friday that investigators have told him they don’t believe the slayings are the work of a single, serial killer.

“Police have indicated to me that there are certain dissimilarities in each case, enough to suggest that they were committed by separate suspects,” Henderson said.

On Friday night, a standing-room-only crowd of about 400 gathered in the conference room of a Clairemont apartment complex, near where both slayings occurred, to address just that concern--that a serial killer might be loose.

Before the meeting was over, several people complained of what one man called a “stunning” rise of crime in Clairemont. A representative of the San Diego Police Department conceded that the drug problem in the area is “serious.”

He said that Clairemont is known for labs that manufacture crystal methamphetamine, and that burglaries in the area are dramatically on the rise.

“And, as I’m sure you know, most arrests for burglary are drug-related,” said Jim Watkins, a public affairs officer in the Northern Division, which covers Clairemont and nearby beach areas.

But what brought most people to the meeting was the fear that a serial killer might be responsible for the slayings of two area residents. The two crimes bear striking similarities.

Tiffany Paige Schultz, 20, an English major at San Diego State University who moonlighted as a nude dancer at a Loma Portal nightclub, was found stabbed to death in her apartment in the 3100 block of Cowley Way on Jan. 12.

Janene Marie Weinhold, 21, a UC San Diego political science major, was found stabbed to death in her apartment in the 3300 block of Clairemont Drive, two blocks from where Schultz lived, exactly five weeks later, on Feb. 16.

Christopher Burns, a 28-year-old construction worker engaged to Schultz, was arrested shortly after he reported finding her body and was held for five days in County Jail. He was released when the San Diego County district attorney did not issue a murder complaint.

Homicide detectives maintain that Burns remains a prime suspect, and that they believe Schultz’s killing was “domestic” in nature. But, on Friday, Sgt. Ray Sigwalt, the investigator handling both cases, declined to discuss parallels between the two killings.

Weinhold lived in the Buena Vista Gardens apartments, whose management organized Friday night’s meeting at Henderson’s behest. Schultz lived in a condominium in Canyon Ridge, which is run by the same company, Anza Management of Irvine.

Suzanne Rosborough, a spokeswoman for the company, announced Friday night that tenants would be provided--beginning today--24-hour armed security patrols, with no fewer than three officers on duty at any time. She and two police representatives also announced the formation of a Neighborhood Watch chapter for the sprawling Buena Vista Gardens and Canyon Ridge apartment complexes.

Not all of the tenants seemed happy with the results. Several asked angrily if this would mean an increase in rents. Abe Rochester, 82, who attended the meeting with his wife, Rose, 78, said the elderly were concerned with the rise of crime in the neighborhood, particularly with the two slayings, but were outraged over numerous rent hikes.

“We’ve lived here nine years, and we’ve had four to five major rent increases,” Rochester said.

Rosborough responded “absolutely not” to questions about a rent increase, but Betsy Keller, an Anza representative, said rents for each tenant are evaluated annually and will continue to be.

Donna Wisted, 29, who lives with her husband in Buena Vista Gardens, said that, through her work as a clerk with the San Diego Police Department, she has researched the rise of crime in Clairemont.

“The truth is, the management of these complexes (Buena Vista Gardens and Canyon Ridge) have not done enough to beef up security, and they regularly increase the rents,” she said. “I live in a one-bedroom apartment, and my rent was just raised from $600 to $645 a month.”