Victim’s Father Cites Delay in Test of Evidence : Crime: Willard Schultz says hair and skin samples found on his daughter sat for six months before going to a lab, but other parents in what may be serial killings have praise for police.

San Diego police collected hair and skin samples in January of a man they now believe has killed five women, but failed to send the evidence to a DNA testing lab until July because of an in-house “mix-up,” one of the victim’s fathers has told The Times.

Willard (Bill) Schultz, father of Tiffany Paige Schultz, said investigators told him the samples were found in the palm of his daughter’s hand and should have been sent to an FBI lab for testing by March.

The results still are not in because of the delay, said Schultz, a member of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors and a resident of Grass Valley, near Sacramento.

“If that’s the case, it’s absolute stupidity on their part,” he said. “The (DNA) test involved hair and skin particles from the suspect that Tiffany had in her hand. Now why hasn’t a positive ID been made? Isn’t that evidence important?”

Since two University City women were killed one week ago, police have mounted what they say is the largest homicide investigation in the city’s history. The Schultz murder in January initially was investigated as an isolated slaying case and was not linked to a possible serial killer until a third stabbing April 3.

Homicide Capt. Dick Toneck said he was not aware of any delay in sending evidence for DNA testing, but he would not comment further on Schultz’s statements.

“We’ve cautioned the parents as to what they should be telling the media,” Toneck said. “If something comes out and compromises the case--if and when we get to court--I’d feel sorry for how it got there. This is not a threat. But (the parents) should use good judgment.”

Tiffany Schultz, a 20-year-old San Diego State University student who worked as a nude dancer, was the first of five stabbing victims police now believe may be linked. When she was found Jan. 12 at her apartment on Cowley Way, she had been stabbed more than 50 times.

Hours after Schultz was found, police arrested her fiance, construction worker Christopher Jon Burns. He spent five days in County Jail before being released for insufficient evidence.

Asked this week if Burns had been cleared as a suspect, homicide Lt. Gary Learn said, “There’s still a lot of questions surrounding that first case.” He would not elaborate. But Toneck said Burns is “not a suspect at this time.”

Since the Schultz murder, four other women have been stabbed, two of them last week in University City. Police believe all five killings may have been committed by the same man, whom they describe as black or dark-skinned, 14 to 23 years old, with a medium build and short hair. All of the victims have been killed in the University City-Clairemont area.

The murders have rattled the nerves of residents, 800 of whom showed up Tuesday night at a University City junior high school for a briefing by police. On Wednesday, police said they had no new information to release at the second in a series of daily media briefings on the murders.

Although most the victims’ family members believe police are doing all they can to find the killer, Schultz said he is far from satisfied.

“I’ll tell you honestly, I’ve had to deal with a lot of things, but never have I dealt with anything as frustrating as this, and which hurts as much as this does,” he said in an interview.

“Absolutely, I’m angry with them, and in order for me to act on my considerable frustration, I’m planning a trip to San Diego to find out exactly what they’re doing--or not doing,” he said.

Schultz said police discovered samples of skin and hair tissue in the palm of his daughter’s hand at the time she was found and promised to forward them to a federal processing laboratory run by the FBI in Washington.

From such samples or others, such as of blood or semen, forensic scientists can extract DNA--deoxyribonucleic acid--which is found in every cell of the body and contains each person’s unique genetic makeup. From DNA molecules, technicians can piece together a pattern to compare to those of suspects.

DNA testing has been ruled as admissible evidence in more than 200 U.S. courts and in 45 states, according to John Hicks, assistant director of the FBI’s lab in Washington, which conducts hundreds of tests a year for law enforcement agencies.

San Diego police have refused to discuss the DNA matter, so it is unclear exactly what the delay means toward resolution of the serial killings.

The FBI’s Hicks said it normally takes six weeks for his agency to work through its backlog to begin tests, and six more weeks to complete the testing. Margaret Kuo, the chief criminalist for the Orange County sheriff-coroner’s office, said the process takes five to six months from start to finish.

Ron Barry, director of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department crime lab, said any piece of evidence would be crucial in a large murder case.

“If the issue is the investigation, the whodunit, then you need everything as soon as possible,” he said. “In fact, you needed it yesterday. But then again, it’s not every day that you have a serial murderer.”

Although Schultz is highly critical of police, parents of other victims of the Clairemont-University City slayings say they are satisfied with the progress police have made.

But all admitted they share Schultz’s frustration and sense of desperation that a killer has not been found.

In interviews with The Times this week, relatives shared new information on their daughters’ deaths, some of which points up dissimilarities in the murder scenes.

Paul Tarr, the father of 18-year-old Holly Suzanne Tarr, who was killed in her brother’s Clairemont apartment April 3, said authorities have told him that robbery appeared to be one of the killer’s chief motives in his daughter’s murder.

“The police tell me the person is obviously looking to rob people,” Tarr said by phone from his home in Michigan, where his daughter attended high school. “Robbery is a big motive, and if someone is home, well, he’s looking for vulnerable people, such as these women.”

Investigators say nothing was missing from Schultz’s apartment, and they have had no comment on whether possessions were taken from the University City home of Pamela Clark, 42, and her daughter Amber, 18, after they were murdered last Thursday.

Police have not shared any information with Clark’s family about the murder of Pamela or Amber, said Pamela’s father-in-law, Vito Lazzaro.

Raymond Weinhold, the father of Janene Weinhold, 21, who was killed Feb. 16, said police told him nothing was taken from his daughter’s apartment.

Weinhold said police told him they believe one man committed all five murders. But Schultz said authorities told family members that a different suspect may have murdered his daughter, with another suspect killing the other four.

No murder weapon was found in the Schultz case, but knives were found at the other three locations, police have said.

Asked if the first case differed from the others, Toneck said: “It differs in some minor ways, and that’s probably why it took us some time to connect all three together. There are sufficient similarities to conclude that all of the crimes were done by the same person.”

The accounts may vary because they are coming from different homicide teams working with each of the families.

Schultz said that one team, headed by Sgt. Ray Sigwalt, was handling his daughter’s murder case. Weinhold said a second team, headed by Sgt. Ed Petrick, was handling the investigation into his daughter’s death. And Tarr said he had been told that both units, in addition to a third, were pooling resources in investigating the third, fourth and fifth murders.

Other than Schultz, the other families were generally pleased with the investigation’s progress.

“My wife and I are happy with the police effort,” Weinhold said from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. “A few weeks ago, we met with the whole squad and were impressed with their professionalism and commitment. And I believe it’s really a gut-level commitment. I believe these killings are something that haunts them.”

“I still have confidence that the police have worked long and hard in trying to find the perpetrator,” Tarr said. “They have been in constant touch with us and have asked for additional photographs (of Holly), just to help the investigation. We feel the city of San Diego and law enforcement agencies have not given up in trying to find this criminal.”

“It’s only natural for the parents to feel bitterness and frustration, but I don’t think it should be directed toward the law enforcement people,” Tarr said. “I know they’ve followed up on hundreds of tips. I just can’t find fault with them.”

Tarr said he sometimes thinks about the killer and the moment his daughter died.

“The first feeling you have is how your child must have suffered,” he said. “And then, how you would have traded places in a second. If there was a choice, and I could have stepped in, I would have. I would have died for her. Then you realize there’s nothing you can do and that the situation is hopeless.

“The person who did this is an evil person. He has no regard for human life. They need to catch this person and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. The public needs to be aware of that and to push for that. We need to get this criminal and all others like him off the streets. If people can’t be safe in their own homes, we have a disease at the core of American life.”

Tarr said he has considered coming to San Diego to lead a prayer vigil for the families of the victims. He said some of them have been in touch by mail.

Schultz and all other family members interviewed said they have seen psychiatrists or grief counselors to help cope with the trauma--in some cases, at considerable financial expense.

“I’m not sure it can be described,” Weinhold said of the loss. “It is absolutely the most horrifying, haunting thing that can happen to anybody--not just the loss of a child but the way in which this child was lost. By all accounts, Janene was beautiful and bright and good, and at the time of the murder, she was doing nothing more than washing her clothes (in the apartment laundry room) and baking cookies, and in a flash, she’s gone--forever.

“It is, of course, a terrible trauma and something we’ll never, ever get over. Since it happened, my thoughts as well as my wife’s have been consumed with thinking of Janene. She was our only child. Therapy and medication are helping, but it’s a long, slow, excruciating process. It’s something that’s affected both sides of our family dramatically.

“In the positive sense, it’s brought all of us closer together, but in the negative, it’s engulfed us with a terrible amount of fear, frustration and this all-consuming sorrow that won’t go away.”

Weinhold, president of the Scottsdale Memorial Health Foundation, which raises money for area hospitals, said his work had been affected by a preoccupation with his daughter’s death. Other parents said they find it hard to work or to concentrate on anything but the crime. Some said they find themselves obsessed with the details surrounding the investigation and with newspaper stories about the murders.

With the exception of his son, who works for General Dynamics, Tarr’s entire family lives in Michigan. He said the family had spent “thousands” on a range of expenses, including airline and funeral costs.

“I don’t know how a poor man goes through this,” Tarr said.