Arizona Home Searched for Bodies : Inquiry: Authorities use trained dogs to comb basement of man charged in death of former Northridge woman.

Building their case against murder suspect John Joseph Famalaro, Arizona and Costa Mesa authorities have recovered clothing believed worn by a former Northridge woman the night she vanished from Orange County three years ago.

The clothing, a black mini-skirt and other articles, were discovered in a box inside Famalaro’s cluttered Prescott Country Club home. They were identified by Costa Mesa police and could be key evidence linking him to Denise Huber, whose nude body was found frozen in the back of a stolen rental truck parked in his driveway in Arizona.

Investigators on Monday also interviewed employees of a San Clemente self-storage facility where Famalaro rented seven units from July, 1992--a year after Huber disappeared--to February of this year. Famalaro contracted to have constant power maintained to the locker where he kept his personal belongings, including a freezer that may have been the one in which Huber’s body was discovered last week, said Harry Tosado, facility manager of Allsize Self-Storage.

“The whole time the freezer was here, he wanted 24-hour electricity, which people here thought was very odd,” Tosado said. “It’s written right on the contract ‘24-hours.’ ”

When Famalaro moved the last of his belongings out of the facility in February, he asked the employees to help load the freezer onto his truck without delay.

“He said he had a generator on his truck that would keep the freezer running while he was driving, but the main thing was, he wanted it loaded real quick,” Tosado said.

Denise Huber grew up in Northridge, where her family moved in 1973. The family was active in Presbyterian churches in North Hills and Calabasas before moving to Newport Beach. She attended Los Angeles Baptist High School in North Hills.

The discovery of the clothing and other personal effects, meanwhile, has led authorities to consider filing an additional charge of kidnaping against Famalaro, said Costa Mesa Police Lt. Ron Smith, which would make it a capital crime.

There were these other developments Monday:

* Authorities are investigating the source of the chest freezer, and believe it may have been bought at a Montgomery Ward store in the Orange County area shortly after Huber’s disappearance.

* Fingerprints have been lifted from the freezer and officials are attempting to match those to Famalaro.

* A Yavapai County (Arizona) grand jury will consider an indictment in the case as early as Thursday.

In the meantime, Famalaro’s defense attorney, Lawrence W. Katz, said he is disturbed by the public attention to his client and what he fears is an assumption of guilt.

“This is a total circumstance case,” Katz said, adding that the stakes are especially high because his client could face the death penalty. “I’m not sure how you go from a frozen body in a freezer to murder.”

Famalaro was being held in lieu of $250,000 bond in Yavapai County Jail.

Huber’s frozen body was found face-down inside the 23-cubic-foot freezer with her wrists handcuffed behind her, Yavapai County Sheriff G.C. Buck Buchanan said.

Authorities said Huber appeared to have received about 10 to 12 blows and lacerations on the head, such as could have been inflicted by a hammer or crow bar. Tools and construction equipment were seized from the home of Famalaro, who has been making his living as a house painter, contract handyman and real estate agent.

Smith said there were no signs of sexual abuse, but the frozen condition of the body may prove helpful in further examination.

But Smith said that the circumstances of Huber’s disappearance on June 3, 1991 might remain forever a mystery, adding that it is still unclear whether Huber was taken by force or was somehow enticed to accompany her assailant. Her car was found abandoned with a flat tire on a Costa Mesa freeway.

“The mystery to be solved now is: Who is Famalaro?” Smith said. “Denise was the mystery for three years, but he’s the mystery now. He had the body frozen and kept moving it around. Bizarre.”

The description seemed an apt one to the many law enforcement officials who converged on Famalaro’s house Monday. Said Sheriff Buchanan: “I’ve been involved in some bizarre cases, but this has got to be one of the most bizarre.”

Throughout the day, Costa Mesa and Arizona officials were searching for other possible victims on Famalaro’s hilltop property. Officials have called for an excavation team that will begin digging at three sites there.

For the second time in as many days, search dogs from Utah found three “areas of interest,” two in the suspect’s dirt-floor basement and another under a back-yard shed.

“I don’t know what we will find in there,” Berra said. “But we want to leave this house knowing that there is nothing left to be found.”

Buchanan said the search will continue Tuesday and was partly prompted by the discovery of the names of 10 women during the search of Famalaro’s home.

By late Monday afternoon, authorities had contacted five of the 10--some located in Phoenix and Southern California. The remaining five were still being sought.

“We found the names and we feel the need to check them out,” Berra said.

Authorities also are concerned with the largely circumstantial nature of the case. It has led them to cart away file cabinets full of Famalaro’s personal documents and possessions for further examination.

“Right now, all we have is a man in custody, a body found in a rental truck in his driveway and some of the victim’s personal effects,” Berra said. “That’s not enough to prove guilt.”

“We need to know where he’s been and what he’s been doing the past three years. We need to know much more about this man.”

Prosecutors, who are in the midst of deciding whether Yavapai or Orange County officials will handle the case, have not indicated whether they will seek the death penalty.

Times staff writers Rebecca Trounson, Michael Granberry, Len Hall and David Reyes contributed to this report.