Pair Who Led Police to Body of Santa Ana Attorney Held : Murder: The suspects allegedly used the strangled man’s credit card to pay hotel bills. Robbery is seen as the motive.

Two men were arrested on suspicion of murder after they led sheriff’s investigators to a dumpster in Dana Point and the strangled body of a Santa Ana attorney who had been missing since he left work Tuesday.

Kurt Karcher, 24, of Cypress and Lee Allen Hallock, 37, of Downey were arrested after they allegedly paid a Downey hotel bill using a credit card belonging to Seymour S. Pizer, 61, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Pizer was last seen leaving his Santa Ana office to go to his Rossmoor home about 6:15 p.m., the spokesman said.

“When our investigation is concluded, I believe we’ll find out that robbery was the motive,” Lt. Dick Olson said.

Barry S. Michaelson, Pizer’s law partner for more than 20 years, said: “We’re all shaken by the news here--Bradley (Pizer’s son), myself, the whole staff.” Bradley Pizer, 31, an attorney, is also a partner in the firm.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested both men about 8:45 p.m. Thursday night at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Downey after a credit card company alerted authorities that Pizer’s credit card was being used, Olson said.

On Wednesday night, too, someone had used one of Pizer’s credit cards at a Santa Ana hotel, Olson said.

On Thursday, authorities asked the hotel to accept Pizer’s credit card and rent the room. Meanwhile, Orange County sheriff’s deputies asked Downey police to go to the hotel and hold any guests in the room.

When police arrived, one man was in Pizer’s Mercedes in a hotel parking lot and another was in the room, Olson said.

Sheriff’s investigators found Pizer’s credit cards and other personal property, he said.

Karcher and Hallock were taken to Orange County where they were questioned. Meanwhile, Pizer’s car was impounded and inspected, and sheriff’s lab technicians found what appeared to be blood in the trunk, Olson said.

During a subsequent interview with the suspects, Olson said, deputies learned the location of Pizer’s body and on Friday morning they recovered it from a dumpster behind a store in the 24000 block of Camino del Avion in Dana Point.

Authorities are listing the cause of death as strangulation, pending toxicology tests. Investigators did not know how he was strangled.

Karcher and Hallock were taken to Intake/Release Center in Santa Ana. Bail was set at $250,000 each.