Police Dig for Bodies in Huber Case : Investigation: Arizona home of suspect in death of O.C. woman is searched for possible additional victims. Police say evidence suggests the work of a serial killer.

Costa Mesa and Arizona authorities were digging for more possible victims Sunday at the country-club home of a 37-year-old house painter charged in the murder of Denise A. Huber, whose frozen body was found in a stolen rental truck parked in the suspect’s driveway.

Authorities said the continuing search of John Joseph Famalaro’s hilltop property in this affluent community was partly due to police finding evidence at the house suggesting the work of a “serial killer.”

Costa Mesa Police Lt. Ron Smith said the discovery of Huber’s checkbook, purse, identification cards and the near-flawlessly preserved body is consistent with murderers who keep personal mementos or bodies as “trophies of their killings.”

A special canine unit from Utah discovered “two points of interest” late Sunday inside the home, said Yavapai Sheriff’s Lt. Kathleen McLaughlin. Two cadaver-sniffing dogs from the Rocky Mountain Rescue Team began brushing their paws up against two places in the downstairs portion of the home, prompting authorities to plan a possible excavation inside the house starting today, she said.

“You never know what might be there,” McLaughlin said. “This case is so unique there might be others (bodies). . . . At the very least, this could be more disturbing for the neighbors.”

Also of particular concern to law enforcement officials is an existing, partial excavation in a lower cellar area in Famalaro’s split-level home next to the Prescott County Club. Authorities were digging in that area Sunday.

“I don’t know what we’re going to find,” Smith said, as authorities--some donning surgical masks--removed thousands of paint cans and other material from Famalaro’s cluttered home early Sunday. “I hope we don’t find anything, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve got something here.”

In an investigation that Smith and others described as reaching a “new height of bizarre,” Huber’s nude body was found Wednesday inside a freezer chest wrapped in layers of plastic trash bags. The freezer was plugged into an extension cord that ran from the Ryder rental truck inside Famalaro’s home.

An autopsy showed that Huber, who was 23 when she disappeared in June, 1991, died from blunt force trauma to the head, according to the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office.

Huber appeared to suffer at least half a dozen blows to the head from a blunt object with “sharpened” edges, police said. No murder weapon has been recovered. Smith said it could not immediately be determined whether Huber had been sexually assaulted. But the body was so well preserved, Smith said, that authorities had little trouble lifting fingerprints from Huber’s hands to make a positive identification.

Because the corpse was frozen, Yavapai County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Laurie Berra said, forensic experts are having a difficult time determining exactly when Huber died. It is possible that time of death may never be determined, she said.

“I would like to think that (death) was immediate,” Berra said. “I don’t like to think of her being toted around for three years as somebody’s slave.”

Famalaro was being held on $250,000 bond, charged with murder and felony theft in connection with the stolen Ryder rental truck, which authorities believe he rented in January from a franchise in Orange County. According to records, Famalaro had worked as a painting contractor based in Irvine using the name Maintenance Doctor. He also used a Lake Forest mailing address. Famalaro moved from Lake Forest to Dewey within the past year to be near his parents and help care for his father, who reportedly has Parkinson’s disease.

The case has been referred to the Yavapai County Grand Jury for further investigation and a preliminary hearing has been tentatively set for Friday.

The Orange County district attorney’s office has been in contact with Costa Mesa police in Arizona about the investigation. It remains unclear what role the office will play. “We have to see how this unfolds,” said Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Maury Evans. “It’s a real tragedy.”

The grim discovery last week marked the end of Orange County’s most baffling missing person case, which began three years ago when Huber disappeared after attending a rock concert at the Forum in Inglewood. Her blue, 1988 Honda Accord was found the next morning on a shoulder of the Corona del Mar freeway in Costa Mesa.

Huber’s parents, who spearheaded a massive and enduring search effort, appeared to be shaken Sunday. The family recently announced their intention to leave the state where they had raised their daughter to move to North Dakota.

“We’re glad we finally have an answer,” Ione Huber said at the family’s Newport Beach home. “We were praying for an answer for a very long time. But this is not the kind of answer we were praying for.”

The Hubers said they had never heard of Famalaro before the discovery of their daughter’s body and had no plans to travel to Arizona as the investigation continues. The family has found some comfort in reports from authorities, who believe that the 23-year-old victim died quickly after her abduction three years ago.

“There’s no sign of torture, and she did not appear to be malnourished,” Lt. Smith said. “That would mean to me that she died very soon after she was picked up.”

As the Hubers were finally free to grieve for their long-lost daughter, another family--the Famalaros--was in the Yavapai County Jail waiting room wrapped in a different kind of grief.

“Our hearts are breaking over this,” said Anne Famalaro, the suspect’s mother. She was accompanied by the suspect’s father, Angelo Famalaro, who appeared ill and extremely weak.

“We are the kind of people who keep to ourselves,” the mother said. “We’re conservative Christian people. I believe in Jesus, and He will pull us through this.”

Famalaro, who lives next door to her son in a fashionable golf course community and reportedly owns the split-level house now surrounded by police crime-scene tape, described her son simply as “wonderful.”

“Please, you must understand,” she said at the jail, “I shouldn’t say anything more.”

About her son’s business, Famalaro said only that she knew he was attempting to sell the thousands of cans of paint and other materials that investigators moved into the home’s driveway. At one point Sunday, law-enforcement officers called in a hazardous-materials team to sift through the paint and other potentially toxic solvents and materials.

Famalaro was arrested Wednesday after authorities were alerted to the Ryder truck sitting in the driveway, determined it was stolen and found Huber’s body in a freezer chest in the back of the truck.

The man who alerted police was Marvin Fields, an Irvine businessman who was trying to close a deal with Famalaro at the suspect’s house, authorities said. Fields became suspicious when he spotted the extension cord from the truck.

In a brief interview Sunday, Fields confirmed that he had called police but declined to comment about what he had seen. “I think it’s best to follow the lead of the police and not say anything,” he said.

Fields said he had been aware of the Huber case. “I’m sure they (family) are glad to finally know.”

Berra said Famalaro initially cooperated with investigators until they began questioning him about what was inside the truck.

“He immediately asked to have an attorney represent him after that,” Berra said.

In short order, defense attorney Larry Katz, well-known locally for his combative courtroom style, was representing the lanky defendant, who is described as approximately 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighing about 150 pounds.

Jail officials said Sunday that no one could visit Famalaro other than family members or his legal defense team.

“Nobody sees him unless Mr. Katz clears it,” one official said.

The recent events have shaken this city, a suburb of Prescott, which Money magazine recently rated as one of America’s most attractive places to live.

“I can go weeks and weeks telling reporters that there is no news to report here,” Berra said, adding that there were six murders reported in Yavapai County last year. “This isn’t like Los Angeles or Phoenix. Crime is minimal here. I don’t think we’ve ever had a drive-by shooting. This is really shaking some people up.”

For Costa Mesa’s Lt. Smith, the dark details of the Huber case have been his life’s work over the past three years.

“The end here, ranks as kind of weird any way you put it,” he said. “This was the biggest case of my career. I lived this case. I became close to the family. I’m glad she has been found, but I’m not happy about the circumstances.

“Every anniversary of her disappearance has been emotional for me. You think of what you could have done differently. But I don’t think we could have done anything more.”

Times staff writers Greg Hernandez and Matt Lait contributed to this report.

More Huber Coverage

* SECRETIVE SUSPECT: Those who know John Joseph Famalaro describe him as troubled loner. A3

* NAGGING MYSTERY: Those who searched three years for Denise A. Huber never gave up. A3

* SHATTERED CALM: The Huber murder case has shaken up a quiet Arizona retirement enclave. A3