2 Admit Killing Elderly Pair, Records Show

Two men arrested in the beating deaths of an elderly San Diego couple have confessed, according to a court documents. And police in San Francisco, where the men are jailed, are investigating the possible involvement of the two in the slayings of three family members in that city.

John Richard Rosenquist, 28, and Randall Clark Wall, 23, who were arrested at separate San Francisco homeless shelters earlier this week, admitted they killed John Oren, 84, and his partially blind wife, Katherine, 73, at the couple’s Clairemont home, according to a San Diego Municipal Court affidavit filed Wednesday in support of arrest warrants.

The men also confessed to robbing the Orens and stealing the couple’s car, which they later torched, the affidavit stated.

The confessions were made during an interview with San Diego homicide detectives after the men were arrested, the document stated. The arrests stemmed from a joint investigation by police in San Diego and San Francisco.

According to the affidavit, Wall said he once dated a granddaughter of the Orens and had lived with the couple briefly in the late 1980s.

He and Rosenquist remain jailed in San Francisco. They will be returned to San Diego for prosecution in a few days, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Przytulski said.

Both are expected to be charged with two counts each of murder, robbery and burglary, the document said.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday that Rosenquist and Wall are also suspects in the killings of an elderly San Francisco couple and their middle-aged son. Howard Bettencourt, 91; his wife, Helena, 88, and their son, Howie, 55, were found stabbed to death in their Richmond District home Monday after a worried relative, unable to contact them, called police. Authorities believe the slayings occurred sometime over the weekend.

“The cases show quite a bit of similarity, and we are looking at these two as suspects in our case,” Lt. Bruce Lorin told the San Francisco Chronicle. He added that the three died of “multiple lacerated trauma,” and there were no signs of forced entry or theft at their home.

But another San Francisco investigator cautioned that it may be premature to link the Oren and Bettencourt cases.

“I think it is too soon to make that sort of a judgment,” said Inspector Michael Byrne of the San Francisco Police Department.

Wall and Rosenquist are suspected of killing the Orens on March 1 as their 10-year-old great-grandson listened in horror from the next room. The great-grandson waited until the next morning before entering the rooms where the bodies were, then ran to a neighbor for help, police said.

According to the confession in the affidavit:

Wall said he once dated an Oren granddaughter and briefly lived with the couple in 1988 or 1989.

Wall said he and Rosenquist had been traveling for some time in Mexico without a car, and that he told Rosenquist that he could obtain a vehicle and money from the Orens.

After arriving at the home on Deerpark Drive, Wall bludgeoned the couple with a 3-foot metal stake he found in the house.

Wall originally said Rosenquist killed the couple, but later retracted the statement and “eventually admitted that he killed Grandma and Grandpa.”

The couple died of massive head wounds and slash wounds in the throat.

The men then ransacked the house and drove off in the Orens’ 1978 beige Mercury Monarch.

Authorities said it was the discovery of the burned out remains of that car that eventually led them to the suspects.

On March 2, the two men bought gasoline for the car in the San Fernando Valley using John Oren’s credit card, said Lt. Paul Ybarrondo of the San Diego Police Department.

That same day, a firefighter on patrol in a federal game preserve in eastern San Luis Obispo County was flagged down by Wall and Rosenquist. The two asked for a ride to the rural town of California Valley, Ybarrondo said.

After dropping the men off at a motel in town, the firefighter notified the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department, thinking it odd that the men were wandering in the remote area without a car. Deputies went to the motel the next day to question the men and took down their San Francisco addresses.

Eleven days later, San Diego police were contacted by authorities who told them they had found the burned-out shell of the car near where the firefighter had picked the men up, Ybarrondo said. Documents belonging to John Oren were found near the car.

On Tuesday, San Diego police, working with the San Francisco police, tracked Wall and Rosenquist to separate homeless shelters, where they were arrested, Ybarrondo said.