Families’ Bad Blood: 2 Left Dead in 9 Days : Crime: Murder suspect’s wife feuded with nurse Donna Connaty, and once sued her over a dog bite.

The family of the man suspected of murdering Buena Park nurse Donna J. Connaty and killing her husband nine days later in a shoot-out feuded with her over the last year and once sued her for $2,000 over a dog bite, according to police and court records.

Evidence of the animosity surfaced Tuesday as detectives continued their investigation into whether Neill F. Matzen bludgeoned Connaty to death at her home on Nov. 24 after being driven there by his wife, Cynthia R. Matzen.

“They didn’t care for each other,” said Buena Park Police Detective Gaylen (Buck) Buchanan.

Neill Matzen was arrested Monday after he killed Connaty’s husband at a trailer park in Santa Ana. Police are continuing to question Cynthia Matzen, who has admitted that she drove her husband to the Connatys’ house the morning of Donna Connaty’s murder and picked him up a few hours later.

Police also revealed Tuesday that it was Cynthia Matzen’s statements to detectives that led them to a lead pipe they believe was the murder weapon--and to her husband’s arrest.

Monday’s shoot-out began when Richard P. Connaty walked into the Matzens’ mobile home in Santa Ana, said “You killed my wife!” and fired a single shot from a .380 semiautomatic handgun into Neill Matzen’s left arm. He then ran outside.

Matzen picked up his .357 magnum, walked outside and fired two shots at Connaty, hitting him once squarely in the chest. Connaty died a few hours later.

Matzen, 36, a tow truck driver for Country City Towing Inc. in Westminster, remained in the jail ward at Western Medical Center-Anaheim on Tuesday. Murder charges in the death of Donna Connaty are expected to be filed today, police said.

Santa Ana police said they do not expect to file charges against Matzen for killing Richard Connaty because it appeared to be a case of self-defense. But after the shoot-out, Buena Park police interviewed Cynthia Matzen and trailer park neighbor Carlos James--with whom Connaty stayed Sunday night--and obtained enough evidence to arrest Neill Matzen on suspicion of murdering Donna Connaty.

Cynthia Matzen, a 28-year-old nursing student, told police they would find the lead pipe allegedly used to kill Donna Connaty underneath the Connatys’ home, Buchanan said.

“She provided that information,” Buchanan said.

While Cynthia Matzen has not been directly connected to Donna Connaty’s murder, it was she who drove her husband to the Connaty home the Saturday morning she was killed--ostensibly to drop him off for a weekend trip to the desert with Richard Connaty--and then picked him up a few hours later, police said.

But Richard Connaty had left the night before for the desert with his three children and Matzen’s daughter--a fact that Neill Matzen knew, Connaty told police. Yet Matzen left a note on the front door of the Connatys’ house that morning, asking “Rick, where are you?”

“Rick expressed concern over why Matzen would go to his house,” said Buchanan, who interviewed both men last Saturday. But Connaty never suggested that he thought Matzen, a friend with whom he rode motorcycles and dune buggies in the desert, had murdered his wife--until Monday’s fatal shoot-out.

“He never mentioned it to us,” Buchanan said.

Police believe that Matzen’s note was a cover-up for his real intention that day: to kill Donna Connaty. They say that he went there early on Nov. 24, waited for Connaty to return from her shift at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, and then beat her on the head when she walked in.

Then, police said, Matzen had his wife pick him up, and the couple drove to the desert together later that day, joining Richard Connaty and the four children in the late afternoon.

Police also allege that Matzen stole three saving account passbooks--for deposits totaling about $1,500--from the Connaty home. The passbooks were found in Matzen’s mobile home after the shoot-out Monday. No money had been withdrawn, police said.

Buchanan said police re-interviewed Cynthia Matzen on Tuesday about Donna Connaty’s murder and will continue to try to determine whether she was simply an unwitting chauffeur for her husband or an accomplice.

“We’ll try to pin down a few details,” Buchanan said. “She made some statements . . . that we have to confirm.”

Cynthia Matzen was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Investigators said they have not ruled out the possibility that Richard Connaty was involved in his wife’s murder. Donna Connaty had complained in court documents that her husband was a violent, abusive man, and the Connatys were in the midst of contentious divorce proceedings when she was killed.

But Richard Connaty’s parents and sister angrily dismissed that possibility and said the couple were trying to reconcile their differences.

“The last month or so they were on good terms,” said Shirley York, Richard Connaty’s sister. “On days they were not working, they would do things together as a family.”

“How could Richard be a suspect?” said Ramsay Connaty, the dead man’s father. “He’d have to leave the small fry out there in the desert alone for at least five hours. He would not hire Neill to do this, no way. They were not that close, and there’s no indication that Neill had been paid any money.”

Detective Buchanan, however, said Donna Connaty’s family disputed claims that reconciliation was at hand. “Her family said just the opposite,” he said.

Neither Connaty’s family nor police would speculate about a possible motive in the Donna Connaty killing.

Buchanan confirmed reports that the Matzens are in severe financial trouble and were about to be evicted from the Coach Royal Mobile Home Park on South Sullivan Street.

“They’re in debt up to their eyebrows,” Buchanan said. “They were just waiting for the marshals to come.”

And both police and Richard Connaty’s relatives agreed that the Matzens and Donna Connaty were not on good terms.

“Donna did not like the Matzens, and she used to say that she did not want Rick taking the kids over there,” Shirley York said. “She had heard that Neill had beaten Cindy and had pulled a gun on her.”

Last summer, York said, when the Connatys were in the throes of divorce proceedings, Neill Matzen went to St. Joseph Hospital and demanded to see Donna Connaty. He wanted to tell her that her husband was about to commit suicide, York said.

After Donna Connaty refused to see him, York said, Matzen took her 1978 Honda on a joy ride for about an hour. Orange police could not confirm the incident.

Last January, Cynthia Matzen filed a suit in Municipal Court in Santa Ana asking for $2,000 in damages after Donna Connaty gave her a dog that bit her 3-year-old daughter.

“They knew the dog bit kids,” Matzen wrote in an angry letter to the court after she lost her case. “Also the dog was still not fully housebroke and he still chewed on anything and everything.”

Court records showed that a second lawsuit was filed against Donna Connaty earlier this year.

That suit, also filed in small claims court, was filed by Carlos James, the Matzens’ next-door neighbor and a friend of Richard Connaty. James claimed that Donna Connaty sold a Marcy home gym that belonged to him, and he received a judgment of $1,630.42 from the court.

The court papers in James’ lawsuit were served on Connaty one night in a Denny’s restaurant parking lot by Neill Matzen.

Times staff writer Lily Eng contributed to this report.