2 Suspects Identified in Slaying : Crime: But police say they lack evidence to arrest fiancee of Newport Beach millionaire and her boyfriend. She says they had no role in the shooting.

The 29-year-old fiancee of millionaire William Francis McLaughlin and her ex-linebacker boyfriend have been identified as suspects in the fatal shooting of McLaughlin, according to police and search warrant affidavits.

The documents reveal that Newport Beach police, in the wake of the Dec. 15 slaying of the 55-year-old McLaughlin in his gated neighborhood, conducted an undercover surveillance of both Nanette Johnston and Eric Andrew Naposki, 28. The affidavits detail the officers’ search of Naposki’s home and cars.

But “at the present time, we do not have enough evidence to arrest anyone in this case,” Newport Beach Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said.

McLaughlin’s 24-year-old son, Kevin, discovered his father’s body, clad only in a bathrobe and slippers, with six bullets in his chest.

Search warrant documents on file at Municipal Court in Newport Beach say that Johnston stood to inherit more than $1 million from McLaughlin’s estate and that she apparently had a romance with Naposki--a relationship that surprised other members of the McLaughlin family.

Johnston, though, said in a telephone interview that “the police are all wet.” She said that Naposki was with her at the time of the killing.

“I didn’t do it and (Naposki) didn’t do it,” said Johnston, who added that she and the victim’s daughters have offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer.

“I don’t think they (police) have any real facts,” Johnston said. “They couldn’t, because I didn’t do anything. . . . I stood to gain a lot more by being with Mr. McLaughlin than (from) an insurance policy.”

She declined to discuss her relationship with Naposki, who could not be reached for comment.

Gonis said that it is believed that Naposki, who briefly played professional football for the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts, is on the East Coast.

“He’s not the suspect,” Gonis said. “He’s a suspect.”

The affidavits filed in court by Newport Beach homicide detectives seeking a search warrant tell this story:

The killer used two keys--one to gain entry to the gated Balboa Coves community and another to unlock the home. Both keys were found at the scene and “appeared to be brand-new.”

According to the affidavits, on the night of the slaying, Johnston, who had lived with McLaughlin for three years, arrived at the Balboa Coves home after Christmas shopping to find police combing the area. She told officers that she had no idea who could have killed her fiance.

Later, police determined that Johnston would receive $150,000 as an heir in McLaughlin’s will and was the beneficiary of his $1-million insurance policy.

Four days after the killing, Johnston’s former husband, Kevin Johnston, told police that she was often in the company of a muscular man in his mid-20s when attending their son’s soccer games. In fact, she had been with the man at a game in Walnut on the day of the killing, he said.

At McLaughlin’s funeral, Johnston’s 9-year-old son told the victim’s nephew, David McLaughlin, that “Mom’s boyfriend plays football.”

David McLaughlin told police that he and his sister were stunned by the remark because they were “under the impression that their uncle and Nanette Johnston were dating each other exclusively.”

One week after the slaying, police began a surveillance of Nanette Johnston at the home on Seashore Drive that she and the victim had purchased together. That afternoon, according to the court records, Naposki went to the home. When he left, police followed him and arrested him on a warrant for failure to appear for a traffic ticket.

Officers found “several suspicious items within Naposki’s vehicle,” including several brown and red stains on the carpet and a green towel with what appeared to be dried bloodstains, the affidavit said. Naposki told officers that the blood was his own and that the other stains were probably cafe mocha.

Naposki, police determined, worked as a doorman at the Thunderbird nightclub in Newport Beach, 448 feet from the victim’s home. He also operated a uniformed security guard business.

Naposki told investigators that he thought that Johnston and McLaughlin were only business associates.

At first Naposki said he and Johnston “were not romantically involved,” but under further questioning he told officers that “he had planned to purchase an engagement ring and propose to Johnston on New Year’s Eve, 1994.”

Naposki told officers that on the day of the killing he had been with Johnston at her son’s soccer game, but that she dropped him off at her Tustin home before she went Christmas shopping at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

Naposki said he changed clothes and went to work at the Thunderbird, arriving between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m., records show.

“It should be further noted,” police wrote in the affidavit, “that Naposki’s time estimates leave him without an alibi or witness during the time the homicide took place,” which police have determined to be about 9:11 p.m.

Naposki told officers that he had purchased a 9-millimeter semiautomatic Beretta 92F handgun several months earlier, but had given it to one of his security guards to take on a job in June, 1994. Naposki said the man lost the gun.

Forensic tests later showed that the spent 9-millimeter shell casings found at the crime scene could have been fired from a Beretta.

Inside Naposki’s car, police found a sheet of paper with the license number of the victim’s 1991 Mercedes-Benz.

Naposki was released on bail, and the police surveillance continued.

In the telephone interview, Johnston said she was reluctant to comment but said: “If I know anything pertinent, I’ll be the first one to blab my mouth to everybody.”