2nd Videotape May Hold Clues to Orange Slaying

A second videotape to surface in the beating death of a 23-year-old Huntington Beach woman was being examined by police Sunday while the manhunt continued for a recently paroled felon suspected in the case.

The videotape was filmed by a patron inside the Australian Beach Restaurant and Nightclub here, where Lenora Annette Wong is believed to have met Edward Patrick Morgan, 28, of Orange, before leaving with him early Friday.

Her battered body was later discovered in a parking lot across the street from the nightclub. Morgan became the leading suspect in the case later that day after an anonymous tipster called police.

The videotape taken inside the bar, which police confirmed Sunday was in their possession, was discovered after police secured another videotape from a surveillance camera outside a pharmaceutical company across the street from the nightclub.

Police said the second videotape may show Morgan and Wong inside the bar together, but declined to elaborate on what the tape outside the bar reveals.

Morgan has remained in hiding since police informed him--through a friend--that he is a suspect in the beating death of Wong and that they want him to turn himself in.

According to police and prison records, Morgan has violent criminal history.

He was sent to the California Institute for Men at Chino in January, 1985, after being convicted of rape. He was paroled in September, 1986, but sent back to prison in April, 1991, after unlawful sex with a minor. He served six months for that offense before being paroled.

Morgan was convicted of a third offense in 1993, but details were not available. He was paroled in March.

“I think he’s a predator of the worst kind,” Orange Police Lt. Timm Browne said Sunday. “He needs to be taken away from the public.”

Browne said investigators have been working around the clock on the case and have solicited help from other county law enforcement agencies as well as the public in trying to locate Morgan.

Police searched Morgan’s apartment in Orange on Saturday looking for evidence in the killing. While officers were there, Morgan called the apartment telephone and spoke with investigators, who asked him to turn himself in for questioning.

A short while later, a friend of Morgan’s called investigators back asking them why they wanted to speak to Morgan. When police refused to explain, the friend indicated that Morgan would not surrender for questioning. At that point, police told the friend they suspected Morgan in Wong’s death. Police have not heard from Morgan or the friend since.

Anyone with information about Wong’s death or Morgan’s whereabouts is requested to call Orange police at (714) 744-7444. A $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case has been offered by the bar where Wong disappeared.