Driver Convicted in Rape, Murder of Woman at I-8 Stop

A San Diego County Superior Court jury convicted a man of murder and rape Monday in a Metropolitan Homicide Task Force case where the primary piece of evidence was a tape-recorded confession made during an intense interview with two detectives.

Elmer Lee Nance, a 63-year-old drifter, was convicted of killing Nancy Allen White on Aug. 27, 1986, at a map stop alongside Interstate 8 just east of El Cajon. The El Toro woman was driving home from El Centro, where she had been celebrating her second wedding anniversary with her Marine husband.

Members of the jury said they found Nance’s confession to be credible, even though it was made more than five years after the attack. In the 3 1/2-hour interrogation, Nance admitted raping the woman in the back of his camper and putting his arm across her neck, which led to a strangulation-like killing.

Nance also told investigators that he kept White’s body in the back of his truck for several days before dumping her corpse alongside the Batiquitos Lagoon near Carlsbad.

Defense attorney Peter Liss argued to the jury that Nance’s confession had been coerced by rough-talking detectives.

Nance faces a 25-year-to-life sentence for the murder conviction and up to eight years in state prison for the rape charge. He will be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Bernard E. Revak on July 7.