Health Club Link Probed in Serial Slayings

San Diego police detectives are investigating the possibility that suspected serial killer Cleophus Prince Jr. stalked a Scripps Ranch woman and one of the murder victims from the same San Diego health club, law enforcement sources said this week.

Prince was arrested outside the Family Fitness Center on Miramar Road on an outstanding traffic warrant Feb. 4 while sitting in his car in the club parking lot. He told homicide detectives he was waiting for a female friend.

In statements made in court last month to prevent Prince’s release from jail, Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Lamborn alleged that Prince followed the Scripps Ranch woman home from the health club the night of Feb. 3, where she had just finished exercising.

Lamborn told the court the woman was about to shower when she heard a noise at the front door and saw a man trying to break in. She ran from the house and called a neighbor, he said. The neighbor ran outside and confronted a man with a screwdriver in his hand. Another man saw him drive away, sources said.

Two people identified Prince from a series of photographs shown them by police, sources said.

Law enforcement sources told The Times this week that Pamela Clark, 42, of University City, one of the murder victims, was a member of the same health club and regularly worked out at the club each morning. They are investigating the possibility that Prince had followed her from the club to Clark’s home on Honors Drive, where she and her 18-year-old daughter, Amber, were stabbed to death.

“We believe that Pamela Clark may have just returned from a fitness routine” the morning she was killed and “can infer from the evidence that (the killer) must have followed her,” said a law enforcement official, who asked not to be named. A second official confirmed the suspicion and also asked not to be named.

The health club connection is the first indication that Prince may have stalked his purported victims from one location to another before killing them.

Thus far, police have speculated that Prince watched Tiffany Paige Schultz, the first victim, sunbathing at an adjacent apartment complex before she was killed in January last year. They say he followed Janene Marie Weinhold, the second victim, from the laundry room of the complex where he and she both had apartments. Weinhold was fatally stabbed in February last year.

And police say Prince signed a swimming pool attendance log at his apartment complex where Holly Suzanne Tarr, the third victim, had been swimming. She was killed in her brother’s apartment there on April 3, 1990. Police have said they interviewed Prince 90 minutes after Tarr’s body was found, but were not convinced he was a valid suspect.

None of the victims other than Pamela Clark were members of the health club on Miramar Road.

The Clarks were murdered Sept. 13, 1990. Police have long worked on the theory that Prince was after Amber Clark, because she fit the profile of young, brunette or blond women who were being killed at the time.

Now they are speculating that Prince may have been stalking Pamela Clark because of the health club connection. Police have not established for sure whether Clark had been working out the morning of the murders. But they say her husband has told police that she regularly exercised at the club before noon.

Police appeared at the health club the morning after the attempted break-in in Scripps Ranch and found Prince sitting in his 1982 Chevrolet Cavalier. Police found a butcher knife in his car, but believe that knives used in the stabbings were taken from each of the victims’ homes.

Prince was booked on the traffic warrant--he previously had been cited for speeding and driving with a suspended license--and the attempted burglarly charge was added after two people identified Prince from a photo lineup.

After his arrest, the district attorney’s office requested in writing that Prince be held on $50,000 bail, but he was released before the necessary paper work reached court. He was given a Feb. 7 arraignment date for the traffic warrant but failed to appear, and a $100,000 bench warrant was issued for his arrest, court records show. County marshals began a search for Prince.

He did appear at a Feb. 15 hearing on the attempted-burglary warrant. Municipal Judge Nicholas Kasimatis set a March 15 disposition hearing and released Prince without bail because he showed up in court.

Police took blood and saliva samples from Prince while he was in jail. Prince returned to his native Alabama in late February. San Diego police obtained DNA results March 1 that they now say link him to the Weinhold murder. They arrested him in Birmingham two days later, and he is being held without bail.

Prince has refused to waive extradition in Birmingham, and Jefferson County District Court Judge Jack Montgomery has scheduled a June 14 extradition hearing.

However, Prince could be back in San Diego within two months if certain paper work is completed quickly. Gov. Pete Wilson must make an extradition request, and Alabama’s governor must agree to the action.

Prince is charged with five murder counts and a single count of attempted burglary with the intent to commit rape and murder.

Prosecutors have filed special circumstances in the cases, which would allow them to seek the death penalty.