Husband to Stand Trial in Wife’s Mutilation Death

An El Cajon man was ordered Tuesday to stand trial in the mutilation murder of his estranged wife.

After a brief preliminary hearing, Shane Edwin Merkel, 27, was bound over to Superior Court for trial in the June 6 slaying of Linda Doran-Merkel, 45, a data entry supervisor at Accudate.

“There was no face apparent on the body,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Yackle said. “It had somehow been detached from the body.”

“The heart was missing,” she said. “There was some post-mortem dismemberment.”

Yackle said that all of the women’s remains have not been found.

Doran-Merkel’s body, naked from the waist up, was found under a blanket in her residence on Richfield Avenue by El Cajon Police Officer Chris Adams, who was checking on her after a friend telephoned police concerned about Doran-Merkel’s welfare.

Seized as possible murder weapons were two knives and an electric screwdriver.

Yackle said the couple were married for several years. A neighbor said the couple separated in May.

The knives recovered by an officer were found in the woman’s car, wrapped in towels with blood and hair on them.

San Diego Municipal Judge Frank Brown said he would set a trial date on Aug. 27. Merkel, formerly a cement contractor, has been held in County Jail without bail since his arrest on June 7.

Two neighbors of Doran-Merkel, Sharon Kincaid and Opal Mulkins, testified that they saw Merkel driving his estranged wife’s car June 6.