Suspect Sought in Gas Station Killing : Crime: Like another man arrested earlier this week, he was the victim’s fellow employee. There reportedly had been a running dispute between the three.

With one murder suspect already in custody, police said Wednesday they are trying to track down a second gas station employee who they believe took part in the brutal bludgeoning of a co-worker last week at a Shell station.

As police looked for the second suspect, the manager of the Shell station revealed Wednesday that she had threatened to fire both suspects just days before the murder because of the victim’s complaints about their work habits.

Sandy White, manager of the Shell station at 1200 S. State College Blvd., where employee Harold T. Doorenbos, 47, was slain Aug. 12, confirmed that she had talked with the two suspects about four days before the murder and threatened to fire them if problems continued.

She also said the second suspect, whom police did not identify, was supposed to report for work last week but did not.

“He was supposed to come to work Friday,” said White, “but he was a no-show. I haven’t heard from him since.”

Police said the young man, a resident of Anaheim, is wanted in connection with the murder of Doorenbos, who was working two jobs to try to support his family.

Arrested earlier this week on suspicion of murder was Miguel Jasso Rodriguez, 19, of Anaheim, who had worked at the station with Doorenbos for about four months. Investigators found inconsistencies in his story and placed him in custody immediately after interviewing him about the crime, said Anaheim Police Lt. John Cross.

As Rodriguez made his first court appearance Wednesday, Municipal Judge Roger B. Robbins in Fullerton set bail at $250,000, but the defendant did not enter a plea. His arraignment was postponed until Sept. 4, and the public defender’s office was appointed to represent him.

Doorenbos’ body, stabbed repeatedly and badly beaten, was found about 3:45 a.m. at the service station. With the office safe open and about $3,000 to $4,000 missing, investigators initially focused on robbery as the motive.

But Cross said Wednesday that investigators were “not exactly sure why he was killed, but we don’t necessarily believe it had anything to do with a robbery. . . . Maybe they just didn’t like him. Maybe there was a fight. We’re just not real sure at this time.”

Shell manager White had her own suspicions, revealing Wednesday that Rodriguez and the second missing suspect had a running dispute with the victim over their work habits.

“The two of them were always together,” White said of Rodriguez and the missing suspect.

“They didn’t like Harold, because Harold was telling me what they were doing (at work) when I wasn’t there--playing in the lot, having more than one person inside the cashier’s booth at a time, that kind of stuff,” White said.

Doorenbos often came on his shift immediately after Rodriguez and could also see him at work from his second job across the street at another gas station, White said.

White said problems between the two suspects and Doorenbos persisted, and noted that items belonging to Doorenbos--a coffee cup and spoons, for instance--were reported missing. And Doorenbos’ portable television, kept in the station, was found broken on the floor one day, White said.

“I figured people get upset all the time,” White said of the tensions at the station. “But I never thought something like this could ever occur.”

The victim’s widow, Dawn Doorenbos, said Wednesday that she knew her husband was having “a rough time” lately at work. But he never spoke in detail about the problems, she said.

It was the victim’s badly beaten body that first led police to suspect fellow employees, Cross said, because the attackers clearly didn’t want Doorenbos to live and perhaps identify them. “He was stabbed like nine times--that seemed a bit much,” Cross said.