O.C. Storage Unit May Have Been Site of Huber Murder : Investigation: Authorities have found what appears to be blood in Laguna Hills facility rented by suspect John Famalaro at time Newport Beach woman vanished.

Investigators in the Denise Huber murder case have found what appears to be blood in an Orange County storage facility once rented by suspect John J. Famalaro, and authorities are trying to determine whether the Newport Beach woman was killed there, law enforcement sources said Thursday.

Even as an Arizona grand jury indicted Famalaro, a 37-year-old house painter, on first-degree murder charges, law enforcement sources in Orange County revealed that authorities were testing the substance found in the Laguna Hills storage complex to see if it indeed was blood and to determine if it matched Huber’s.

Investigators have combed the unit that Famalaro was renting in June, 1991--when Huber disappeared--using a laser and an evidence-enhancing substance known as Luminol, the sources said.

“They have been doing tests at night. They’ve pulled up the carpet, searching for blood and hair,” said Christy Clow, property manager at the storage facility.

Huber, 23, vanished three years ago in Costa Mesa while heading home from a concert. Her nude and handcuffed body was found last week in a freezer outside Famalaro’s country club home, about 75 miles north of Phoenix. She had suffered multiple blows to the head, and her eyes and mouth had been covered with cloth and sealed with duct tape, authorities said.

In other significant developments Thursday:

* A team of investigators from Orange County--including chief forensic pathologist Richard Fukumoto and other crime scene specialists--was preparing to travel to Arizona today to meet with counterparts there to discuss the case and, presumably, take up jurisdictional issues, which, in light of Thursday’s revelations, will likely take on added import.

* Court documents filed in Yavapai County, Arizona, revealed numerous additional items seized from Famalaro’s home and vehicles in recent days, including a black whip, a microcassette marked “Save--Important,” a brown paper sack with two keys and pubic hair, and a 1977 Playboy pictorial entitled “Sexy Ladies.”

* Contacted by telephone, some of six additional women whose names were found in subsequent searches of Famalaro’s belongings said they had no clue as to how Famalaro came into possession of their effects. “Good God! Even my middle initial,” said Donna R. Evinger, 57, of Tustin. “I’m pretty shook up. . . . I’m alive; I can say that.”

* After a three-day search, authorities located Deborah Aileen Clark, one of 11 women whose identification and personal effects had previously turned up in a search of Famalaro’s home. Police found her in a Glendale, Ariz., tavern she frequents, allaying concerns for her welfare and reinforcing some investigators’ belief that the case involves one bizarre crime rather than multiple killings, as initially feared.

* Joining newly appointed defense counsel Thomas K. Kelly is Warren R. Darrow, an attorney who Kelly said is a distant relative of famed defense lawyer Clarence Darrow.

* Mark Ballou, who helped Famalaro measure his freezer in January to see if it would fit in his Prescott Country Club house, said Famalaro warned him “not to look in it.” He also expressed surprise that Famalaro could be involved in such a bizarre crime.

“John didn’t seem like he would do that,” Ballou said. “He was strange, but in a normal sort of way.”

Clow, the property manager for the Laguna Hills storage facility, at 23192 Verdugo Drive, said Thursday that police have been conducting forensic tests inside a unit that had been leased to Famalaro from February, 1991, to September, 1992. Huber disappeared June 3, 1991, after her car blew a tire on the Corona del Mar Freeway.

Fronted by eucalyptus trees, the one-story warehouse containing Unit B is located in a mostly nondescript light industrial complex.

Clow said investigators told her Unit B was a potential crime scene in the Huber case.

Experts familiar with the type of high-tech devices being used to search the warehouse confirmed that they can be used only in low light, and most efficiently at night.

“When Luminol reacts with blood, it’s very faint,” said Donald J. Johnson, a senior criminalist with the scientific services bureau of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office. “In order to see it, it has to be dark.”

“Sometimes a moonbeam coming through a window can disrupt the test,” said Johnson, adding that his agency schedules all of its Luminol probes at night.

John Conley, an Orange County assistant district attorney, confirmed Thursday that investigators have focused on a “possible” Orange County murder scene linked to Famalaro.

He declined to discuss where that site was but said investigators have examined the location for the past several days, trying to determine if Huber was slain there. He would not confirm or deny whether detectives have discovered blood evidence there.

“Police are in the course of investigating that very topic,” Conley said. “At the present time, the investigation is still ongoing as to whether the murder scene can be shown to be in Orange County.

“Should the murder scene be proven to have been in Orange County,” Conley added, “we could have jurisdiction” and try Famalaro here instead of in Arizona.

From Arizona, Costa Mesa Police Lt. Ron Smith confirmed that authorities in Orange County are using special equipment at three locations, including the Verdugo Drive venue in Laguna Hills.

“What we’re trying to do right now is establish the location where Denise was murdered. We are looking at only those three locations,” he said.

Another law enforcement source said: “It may be that the crime actually occurred in Orange County--in sheriff’s office territory.”

Clow said Famalaro was evicted in September, 1992, because he fell behind in rent payments. Following the eviction, Clow discovered he had been living in the unit--which is against the rules.

During his tenure there, Famalaro painted the windows at the front of the facility black so people could not look in, Clow said. “It was very strange,” she said.

When Famalaro moved out, he left a small refrigerator, a sleeping mat, a hot plate, paint cans and garbage, Clow said. “There was nothing juicy,” she said.

Although any evidence garnered at the storage facility may be 3 years old, experts said Thursday that today’s technology is more than sufficient to provide a detailed analysis.

“I’ve been involved in some cases where there’s been an identification (of a victim) years after the crime has been committed,” said Cyril Wecht, one of the country’s leading forensic pathologists.

Using argon lasers and Luminol, investigators can enhance clues that are invisible to the eye in daylight so that they glow in the dark like tiny beacons, experts said. They can detect bodily fluids and trace evidence such as semen, fibers, blood and the residue left behind by fingerprints.

Even with only a tiny splotch of dried blood, it is possible to identify a victim years after a crime has been committed, Johnson from the Los Angeles County sheriff’s office said.

“For the most discriminating DNA test, we need no more than a bloodstain the size of a quarter,” he said.

Deliberating in secret in Prescott, Ariz., the Yavapai County Grand Jury indicted Famalaro on first-degree murder charges, making him eligible for the death penalty.

The grand jury heard testimony from Yavapai County Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Mascher before also returning an indictment on a felony grand theft count alleging that Famalaro stole a Ryder rental truck containing the freezer with Huber’s body.

Tapped by Famalaro on Wednesday, new defense lawyers Kelly and Darrow said they expected to file several motions in the next few days, but Darrow declined to reveal any strategy. Unlike former defense lawyer Lawrence William Katz, who was fired Wednesday, Darrow said he and Kelly would not discuss strategy publicly.

Katz, who had aggressively criticized the case against Famalaro as circumstantial, said Wednesday that he was dismissed because he is Jewish and Famalaro’s mother wanted a Catholic lawyer.

But on Thursday Katz offered another reason for his abrupt termination: “I was too expensive,” he said. “I’m just aghast. That has never happened to me before.”

Famalaro is being held without bond and is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 1 in Yavapai County Superior Court. Authorities will have 10 days after arraignment to notify Famalaro whether they intend to seek the death penalty.

If Arizona authorities decide to make it a death penalty case, the issue of where the case would be tried takes on added significance.

In California, prosecutors must prove that the murder entailed “special circumstances”--such as during a rape or involving more than one victim--before they can seek the death penalty.

In Arizona, the law takes a more liberal view: Prosecutors can seek the death penalty by arguing that the murder alone was an “especially heinous, cruel or depraved” crime. Prosecutors proffered that argument Wednesday when they persuaded a judge to keep Famalaro held without bond.

Because of the nuances of the differing capital punishment statutes, some observers have speculated that Famalaro would face the toughest time in Arizona, unless authorities here possess strong enough evidence to prove “special circumstances”--that Huber was kidnaped from California or the victim of another felony.

Yavapai County Prosecutor Tom Lindberg sought to downplay jurisdictional issues. “We want to try the case in the jurisdiction it belongs and where there is the greatest likelihood for a conviction,” Lindberg said.

“If there is evidence to rebut the assumption that the murder happened in the county where the body was found and that turns out to be California, we will be sending the case there,” he said, declining to comment on whether any evidence has surfaced indicating that the murder took place in Orange County.

As authorities press to pinpoint when and where Huber was killed, investigators have said they suspect Huber was bludgeoned shortly after her abduction and then carted around in a freezer for three years or more.

It will take several days before coroner’s and crime lab reports will be released, according to prosecutor Lindberg, as is the case for pending forensic tests on the blood-like stains found on evidence seized from Famalaro’s home.

Authorities plan to hold Huber’s body at least until next week, and the autopsy may not be completed for 2 1/2 weeks. And a source said Thursday that defense attorneys may soon file a motion asking that their own forensic pathologist review the body, which could add delays.

Also Thursday, police obtained a third search warrant for Famalaro’s home, a vehicle parked in front of Famalaro’s home and two trucks Famalaro used in his work that are parked in front of his mother’s house.

“They are looking for additional places where there might be the possibility of blood,” Lindberg said.

Prior searches of Famalaro’s hilltop home have unearthed a crowbar and claw hammer that appear to be bloodied, strips of white cloth and a tarp, also stained with a crimson-colored substance, and items belonging to Huber, including clothing, jewelry and a purse.

Both the hammer and crowbar are being regarded by investigators as possible murder weapons. Both are consistent with the type of wounds Huber suffered to her skull, which suffered as many as 10 blows from a blunt-edged instrument.

Huber’s disappearance three years ago touched off a nationwide search, and authorities Thursday noted the irony that her body might have been here in Orange County for a good portion of that time.

Times staff writers Kevin Johnson and Gebe Martinez contributed to this report from Dewey, Ariz., and Doreen Carvajal, Jodi Wilgoren, Lily Dizon, Greg Hernandez, David Reyes, Tracy Weber, Michael Granberry and Rebecca Trounson reported from Orange County.

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Famalaro’s Storage Unit

In February, 1991, John J. Famalaro rented a spacious storage unit in Laguna Hills at 23192 Verdugo Drive, according to the property manager. He apparently moved into the unit the following month and was evicted in September, 1992. Authorities suspect this might be the murder site, said law enforcement sources. A look at the surroundings:

Unit A: Versailles Limousine Service

Unit B: Famalaro’s unit; empty front office with torn baseboard

Unit C: Interior design/furniture store