Marijuana, Drug-Making Chemicals Found in Couple’s Home : Investigation: Husband worked in UC Irvine lab. Police check school for missing chemicals, equipment.

Police who found marijuana and chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamines in a San Clemente couple’s home Wednesday are investigating whether the chemicals or equipment came from UC Irvine, where the husband is a student, police said.

Daniel Scarr, 34, a graduate chemistry student, and Sandra Louise Scarr, 37, were arrested by Irvine police and agents from the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, who served a search warrant on their home.

The officers discovered “very large amounts” of chemicals as well as a “sophisticated marijuana cultivation system,” Irvine police said. Ten growing marijuana plants and two pounds of marijuana also were recovered, they said.

Investigators “have to go to UCI and check to see what kinds of (chemicals) they have there and if they can be accounted for,” said Irvine Police Sgt. Gary Schull. “It’s going to involve checking bills and orders and looking at a lot of paperwork.”

Scott Nelson, a UCI spokesman, said that Scarr worked in a chemistry lab and had access to the kinds of controlled substances and solvents sometimes used in the production of methamphetamines. But Nelson and John Hemminger, chairman of UCI’s chemistry department, said they know of no evidence suggesting that anything is missing from the lab.

“We don’t yet have a list of what the police found (in the home) to correlate with what is in the lab,” Hemminger said. “But we are certainly looking to do an inventory of the lab.”

The Scarrs were booked on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamines and cultivating marijuana.

Daniel Scarr was admitted to UCI as a graduate student in the fall of 1993. He did not complete course work in the spring, 1994, semester but did serve as a teacher’s assistant, Nelson said.

Scarr worked in a research lab that specialized in bio-organic chemistry and molecular recognition, which is the study of how chemicals interact. Graduate students are not required to sign out equipment and chemicals they use, Hemminger said.