Arrest in Slaying Follows Grisly Discovery : Crime: Man is jailed on suspicion of killing Huntington woman, 47, after car crash. Body was found in car parked outside Irvine hospital.

A Minnesota electrician is being held in connection with the slaying of a Huntington Beach woman who had stopped to talk to him following a traffic accident and was beaten to death with a wrench at the side of Pacific Coast Highway in broad daylight, police said Friday.

Leonard James Patton, 29, of St. Anthony, Minn., was arrested on suspicion of murder and kidnaping hours after the body of Jessica Ellen Uniack was discovered Thursday under a pile of blankets and clothes in the passenger seat of her Toyota Land Cruiser, police said.

He was being held at County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail, police said.

“I can’t think right now, I still can’t believe what happened,” Bill Uniack, the victim’s husband of 20 years, said.

The 47-year-old mother of two children was on the way to deliver homemade coconut cookies to a friend across town when she apparently collided with a van, said Sandra Clouse, her best friend. Police said the attack occurred on Pacific Coast Highway near Seal Beach Boulevard sometime after 9:45 a.m.

Uniack and the driver of the van apparently exchanged names and addresses for insurance purposes, said Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato. Police found Patton’s name and address and the license plate number of the rented van written on a piece of paper in Uniack’s car.

Investigators believe the man had struck Uniack’s vehicle, then attacked her with a lug wrench after she pulled over to the side of the road, said Irvine police Sgt. Dwight Henninger.

Investigators have yet to establish a motive for the killing, Henninger said.

The assailant left his van at the side of the road and drove Uniack in her vehicle to the back entrance of Irvine Medical Center in the 16200 block of Sand Canyon Avenue, where he abandoned the vehicle with the engine running and fled on foot, according to police.

A nurse saw that the vehicle was blocking the emergency entrance and called a security guard about 11:30 a.m., police said. The security guard moved the vehicle to the parking lot, where he found Uniack’s body while searching for an identification, hospital officials said. He called the police, and a search for a suspect was launched.

About 7:30 p.m. Thursday, a motorist saw a “suspicious-looking” man walking north on Newport Coast Drive and notified police, Allevato said. When officers arrived, they arrested Patton, Allevato said.

According to police, Patton also was arrested in September on suspicion of car theft in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Family members and friends Friday mourned the death of Uniack, who was remembered as a woman with whom everyone shared their problems and secrets.

She arrived in Huntington Beach in 1974 from Milwaukee, Wis., for a job interview and fell in love with the man who interviewed her.

Bill Uniack, who interviewed her for a sales position at his company, said, “I gave her the job, but she only worked for about a week. We both knew her working there wasn’t going to work out.”

The two were married three months later. They have two sons. Billy, 18, is a general education major at the University of Boston, and Alex, 15, is a freshman at Servite Catholic School in Anaheim.

Besides always being there for her family, Clouse said, Jessica Uniack took in stray dogs, cats and birds. Two of her pets died earlier this year.

“It was like a Humane Society around here,” Clouse said.

During the 1984 Summer Olympics, Uniack helped coordinate the yacht race in Long Beach. She also directed the Huntington Beach youth sailing program and was a board member of the national Family Strengthen America, a nonprofit group that provides family and drug counseling.

“She was the glue that held everything together,” Clouse said.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

Police are asking that anyone with information about the crime should call (714) 724-7174.

Times staff writer Ken Ellingwood contributed to this report.