Woman Held in Slayings of O.C. Man, His Mother

A 19-year-old woman was arrested for investigation in the slayings of a Lemon Heights entrepreneur and his mother, sheriff’s officials said Saturday.

John Tyler Hancock, 49, who said he was descended from Declaration of Independence signer John Hancock--and his 77-year-old mother, Helen Bauerle Hancock--were found May 8 at the home above Tustin. The pair had been shot and their burned bodies were discovered in the smoldering ruins of their $5,000-per-month rented hilltop home.

Tynickia Sherikia Thompson of Anaheim was arrested Friday night in an Anaheim parking lot. Investigators said she had a financial quarrel with Hancock and was at his residence the day before the killings. Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson said Thompson is the only one under investigation.

She was held without bail at the county jail and will be arraigned Wednesday on two counts of first-degree murder, Wilkerson said. “A financial dispute between Hancock and Thompson existed and is believed to be the motive,” he said.

Investigators uncovered a trail of legal disputes in Hancock’s past. Court records showed he was involved in several lawsuits and a series of bankruptcies.

Twenty years of Hancock’s bad deals are documented in civil files in Orange County Superior Court. Hancock served time in county jail for threatening a man with a pistol. In 1988, he was convicted of three counts of mail fraud and sentenced to three years in prison.