Police Obtain Arrest Warrant for Matzen : Killings: But authorities say they still have leads on the whereabouts of a man who confessed to the murder of a friend’s wife.

Police obtained a warrant Thursday for the arrest of Neill F. Matzen, who wrote letters confessing to the murder of a friend’s wife and saying that he would take his own life.

Matzen told his wife that his body could be found in a remote desert hut near Chiriaco Summit in Riverside County. But a two-day search of the area earlier this week turned up no trace of Matzen.

Residents of the town said he spent the weekend drinking coffee and soda and eating meals in a truck stop along Interstate 10, and investigators speculated that he may have hitched a ride out of the state.

The search was called off Wednesday, and investigators are now hoping that Matzen, who was wounded in the left arm in a shoot-out with the murdered woman’s husband on Dec. 3, will seek medical attention or otherwise reveal his location.

Fingerprint analysis of one of the letters mailed by Matzen last week proved that it was in fact written by him, Buena Park Police Sgt. Terry Branum said Thursday.

Matzen, a 36-year-old tow-truck operator from Santa Ana, mailed three letters last week confessing to the Nov. 24 bludgeoning murder of Buena Park nurse Donna J. Connaty.

Nine days after Donna Connaty was killed, Matzen killed Connaty’s husband, Richard P. Connaty, in a shoot-out at a Santa Ana mobile home park. According to his confession letter, Matzen agreed to kill Donna Connaty in return for a $15,000 payment from Richard Connaty.

Matzen said in the letter that the shoot-out occurred after he told Connaty that he would no longer permit him to have an affair with Matzen’s wife, Cynthia R. Matzen.

Matzen was briefly in custody last week on suspicion of killing Donna Connaty but was released from the jail ward of Western Medical Center-Anaheim because of insufficient evidence. He left the area shortly afterward.