Ex-Marine Confesses to 8 Killings, Police Say

A former Camp Pendleton Marine arrested in Chicago this week confessed to killing as many as eight women in Illinois and Southern California, including a Saddleback College student whose death had remained a mystery for 11 years, authorities said Friday.

Andrew Urdiales, 32, who served at Camp Pendleton and Twenty-nine Palms from 1984 to 1991, admitted to the slayings after being arrested Wednesday and charged with the murders of two Chicago-area prostitutes, police there said. During questioning, Urdiales also said he is responsible for as many as six other killings, including the January 1986, stabbing of 23-year-old Robbin Brandley in a dimly-lit campus parking lot in Mission Viejo, police said.

During police interviews in Chicago, the former Marine radio operator shocked veteran investigators with his cold and calculated description of the killings.

“He just sat there and said things like ‘Then, I blew her head off,’ like it was no big deal,” Palm Springs Det. John Booth said of Urdiales’ confession to a killing in that city.

“This was the worst interview I’ve ever had,” said Booth, a 19-year veteran. “It was scary. . . . His demeanor was enough to make goose bumps go up and down your back.”

Booth, who questioned Urdailes for two hours Friday, said Urdailes confessed to the killing because “his life was ruined and he said he wanted to come clean.”

About 4:30 p.m. Friday, Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates informed Brandley’s parents the man suspected of killing their daughter had been arrested.

“It was an answer to our prayers,” said Genelle Reilley of Laguna Beach, who with her husband, Jack, had refused to give up hope that a suspect would be found.

For years, they spent tens of thousands of dollars on private detectives, even psychics. They pushed hard for state legislation, which passed in 1990, requiring more lighting on college campuses. Just last January, on the 10th anniversary of the slaying, the Reilleys renewed their $50,000 reward offer.

“When they told us about the arrest, I just started to cry,” Genelle Reilley said.

But the Reilleys’ relief turned to horror when police told them that the suspect appears to be a serial killer.

“This was the man who took my child away?” the grief-stricken mother said.

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The Reilleys said Friday that they had quietly endured the heartbreaking memories of their daughter’s death. But twice a year, on the anniversaries of Robbin’s birth and death, the emotionally overwhelmed couple would travel to Palm Springs to escape.

Capt. Robert Kemmis, head of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s homicide division, said at a news conference that authorities are “very confident that we should focus our energies on this man.”

Authorities say they will now reexamine the 800 unsolved killings in Orange County.

Authorities were tight-lipped about evidence against the suspect, who is accused of luring prostitutes in the Chicago area into his truck for sex and then provoking a fight.

The suspect then would shoot the victim in the head, undress the body, and drop it into Lake Wolf, Chicago Police Lt. Joseph Murphy said.

Orange County authorities, however, said they believe that Brandley’s killing was a random act; there is no evidence that sex or robbery was a motive.

“There’s no indication at all that this was planned,” Kemmis said.

Chicago police notified Orange County authorities this week that similarities in the way the victims were killed indicated Urdiales could be Brandley’s killer. Orange County sheriff’s investigators interviewed him and were returning to Southern California this weekend, confident that charges should be pursued against Urdiales, Gates said.

Urdiales is suspected of killing three prostitutes in the Chicago area and dumping their bodies in a lake, and killing four women in Palm Springs, two of whom were prostitutes, police there said.

Palm Springs Det. Booth said Urdiales also is wanted in connection with the attempted murder of a 19-year-old high school student several years ago in the Palm Springs area. According to Booth, Urdiales offered the student a ride home, but kidnapped her, raped her and threw her into the trunk of his car, and then apparently went looking for a secluded spot, Booth said. But the student broke out of the trunk and escaped, Booth said.

Urdiales was expected to be transferred Friday night to Cook County Jail and face arraignment Monday on two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

“He is the killer,” Chicago Police commander Nathan Gibson said. “He would kill them after having sex with them.”

Urdiales is suspected of killing Laura Uylaki last July and Lynn Huber, both of Illinois, last August. Both victims were found nude, floating in Lake Wolf, and were believed to be prostitutes who worked in Hammond, a low-income suburb of Gary, Ind., police said.

Urdiales first came to the attention of authorities last year when he was arrested in Chicago on a weapons violation involving a .38-caliber gun. He was subsequently released.

On Wednesday, he was arrested again in Hammond, allegedly after coaxing a prostitute into his car. After a scuffle, he reportedly handcuffed the woman, who began screaming and alerted a nearby Hammond police officer.

Police then revisited the earlier case, and linked Urdiales to the killings through the .38-caliber gun, authorities said.

“That weapon proved to be the murder weapon with the three young ladies found in Wolf Lake,” one law enforcement official said.

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While he was in custody of Hammond police, Chicago police had staked out his home for the past week. On Wednesday, the home was searched and Urdiales’ truck was confiscated.

During the course of being interviewed in connection with those slayings, he confessed to killing Brandley and two women in Palm Springs. He is a suspect in two additional Palm Springs killings.

Law enforcement authorities in Palm Springs confirmed Friday that they are looking at Urdiales as a potential suspect in the April 1989 killing of Tammy Lynn Erwin, 18, a transient whose bullet-riddled body was found in a vacant lot, and the March 1995 killing of Denise Maney, 32, of Cathedral City.

“He copped out to both of them,” Booth said Friday.

Late Friday, Palm Springs police found a gun and knife in a storage locker registered in Urdiales’ name in Twentynine Palms, said Det. Tony Castillo.

At Saddleback College on Friday, officials felt a mixture of relief that a suspect had been caught and renewed grief at the tragedy that has haunted the campus for more than a decade.

“We’re grateful to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department that there’s apparently closure for the family of Robbin Brandley and for the Saddleback Community College District,” said Diane Riopka, spokeswoman for the Saddleback Community College District.

The murder had lasting impact on the campus. The Reilleys led a safety crusade to improve campus security and lighting on campuses throughout the state with the help of then-Assemblywoman Marian Bergeson.

“Oh my God,” Bergeson gasped Friday upon hearing the news. “After all this time? Well, it certainly gives you some hope that they can track these creeps down.”

Bergeson recalled the Reilleys Friday as people who set aside their own personal grief to help ensure the safety of other college students.

“Something good did come out of something so tragic,” Bergeson said.

Saddleback Community College District Trustee Marcia Milchiker said the campus never really recovered from its most infamous tragedy.

“It was just so sad when it happened,” she said. “We all remember like it was yesterday.”

She said she hopes the arrest of a suspect will serve to remind people of the need to remain vigilant about campus safety.

“It’s a huge relief, but we still need to ensure we maintain our safety record,” said Milchiker, who was new to the board of trustees at the time of the slaying. “We need to make sure students walk together, and that we keep up the lighting and we keep up our police force.”

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It is unclear when Urdiales may face charges in Orange County, although Gates said Friday that prosecutors will seek to have him tried in Orange County on first-degree murder charges in Brandley’s slaying.

“We want this man to stand trial in Orange County,” Gates said.

On Jan. 18 1986, the night she died, Brandley, a communications major and campus radio station disc jockey who had changed her last name from Reilley for career reasons, was working as an usher at a school concert.

Leaving a post-concert party, she started for the parking lot about 10:30 p.m. and was never again seen alive. She was stabbed repeatedly near her car. Her wounds could have been treated if someone had found her, officials said. Instead, she bled to death about 100 yards from the theater where she volunteered as an usher. No weapon was found

Evidence showed she was not raped or robbed, and that no drugs were involved.

A security guard told authorities he saw her body on the ground next to her car but didn’t stop because he thought she looked like a mannequin.

The killing baffled Orange County authorities for years because there was so little evidence to go on, Gates said.

The sheriff’s deputy who first arrived at Brandley’s murder scene expressed great relief at the arrest.

“Cases like this you never forget,” Sgt. Ron Acuna said. “It’s nice to know they actually caught this guy.”

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Gates said he will never forget the “emotional hour” spent with Brandley’s parents Friday.

“They are extremely relieved that this tragic event has finally come to closure for them,” Gates said. “If you could have seen the relief in their eyes, it’s not something you can forget very quickly.”

The Reilleys recalled Friday that in their anguish to find the murderer, they even had taken what they described as the humiliating step of appearing on afternoon talk shows. But the couple said appearances on “Sally Jessy Raphael” and “Geraldo” were necessary to keep Robbin’s case alive.

“It was awful,” Genelle Reilley said at her home Friday night. “But it was our only way to make Robbin’s case known to the average person. We wanted to get out there and have a voice.”

They almost canceled their talk show appearances on several occasions, deeply disturbed that the killer might be watching.

“I didn’t want my daughter’s murderer to be entertained,” Genelle Reilley said Friday.

Staff Writers Anna Cekola, Tina Nguyen, Stephen Braun and Robert Lopez and correspondent Diana Marcum contributed to this report. The Associated Press contributed to this report.