Pair Indicted on 37 Added Theft, Fraud Charges

A federal grand jury in Las Vegas has indicted a couple on 37 new counts of fraud and theft in connection with the disappearance of a retired Glendale banking accountant and the missing man’s life savings.

Scheduled to face trial Oct. 1 are Stanley Alan Hershey, 46, and his wife, Jan Vicki Fine, 38.

They are accused of stealing a motor home, a four-wheel-drive vehicle and more than $175,000 in savings belonging to Gordon T. Johnson. Johnson, 62, has not been heard from since he telephoned relatives Oct. 14 while on a trip through Oregon.

The FBI and authorities in several states say they believe that Johnson was murdered and that his body may have been dumped in Shasta Lake in Northern California. Since no body has been found, murder charges have not been filed.

Hershey and Fine were arrested March 1 in Las Vegas by FBI agents after they were found driving a Suzuki owned by Johnson, according to court records. A grand jury in March indicted the couple on three counts of conspiracy, interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle and illegal use of a banking card.

A federal magistrate in March ordered the couple held without bail despite the relatively minor charges. The magistrate said the evidence “points a very strong finger of suspicion” at Fine and Hershey in the possible killing of Johnson.

In a superseding indictment issued by the grand jury Aug. 30, Fine and Hershey were charged with 40 counts of federal violations, including the theft and interstate transportation of Johnson’s $219,000, 40-foot motor home; transfer or withdrawal of almost $170,000 from Johnson’s checking account at Glendale Federal Bank, and illegal use of an automatic banking card for more than $5,000 in cash withdrawals.

Federal and state investigators say the case is one of the most bizarre they have encountered.

The suspects, who have master’s degrees and taught at a private school in Santa Monica, apparently are disciples of the “New Age” religion. They practice “automatic writing,” in which spirits are said to guide peoples’ hands in spelling out their destiny, investigators and acquaintances say.

The indictment charges that the couple stayed at two motor-home parks--in Minnesota and Oregon--at the same time last fall as Johnson.

Johnson, who had worked for a subsidiary of Glendale Federal Savings, had taken to a lonely life on the road accompanied only by his Labrador retriever-German shepherd puppy, Rocky.

Court records indicate that Hershey and Fine had Johnson’s vehicles and began spending his savings immediately after the man’s disappearance.