Couple Held as Suspects in Man’s Disappearance

Two former Santa Monica teachers were arraigned Friday before a Las Vegas federal magistrate who said “a strong finger of suspicion” suggests their involvement in the disappearance of a retired Glendale accountant.

Stanley Alan Hershey, 46, and his wife, Jan Vicki Fine, 37, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, illegal use of a banking card and transportation of a stolen vehicle across state lines.

They were arrested in Las Vegas driving a Suzuki car owned by Gordon T. Johnson, 62, who left Glendale last April with a 40-foot motor home and the four-wheel drive Suzuki to travel the country.

Hershey and Fine, who apparently met Johnson on the road, are “the subject of a murder investigation,” Asst. U.S. Atty. J. Gregory Damm told U.S. Magistrate Lawrence R. Leavitt at a hearing this week. Leavitt ordered the couple held without bail.