LOCAL : Suicide Letter Admits Murder
Authorities searched the desert in Riverside County today for a 36-year-old Santa Ana man who sent suicide letters to police and a local newspaper in which he confessed to the bludgeoning murder of Buena Park nurse Donna J. Connaty.
Buena Park detectives were en route to Chiriaco Summit, a town about 30 miles east of Indio, where a yellow Triumph TR-7 belonging to Neill F. Matzen was found abandoned Tuesday, Buena Park Police Sgt. Terry Branum said.
Police and the newspaper received letters from Matzen Tuesday in which he said he had killed Donna Connaty last Nov. 24 for a $15,000 fee promised him by Connaty’s husband, Richard P. Connaty. Matzen killed Richard Connaty nine days later in a shoot-out after Connaty opened fire.
Matzen said he would be dead by the time his letters would be received, but authorities have not yet found his body and speculate he may still be alive.
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