Suspect Expected to Plead Not Guilty in Wife’s Murder

An Irvine man is expected to plead not guilty today to charges he strangled his wife two years ago and dumped her body along a remote, wooded road near Temecula, his attorney said.

“I just do not believe for one second he did it,” James Riddet said of his client, Daniel Rodrick, 40.

San Diego County Deputy Dist. Atty. Giacomo “Jack” Bucci said he will ask that Rodrick be held without bail at the San Diego County Jail in Vista, where the lighting salesman has been since his arrest Wednesday on suspicion of killing his wife, Carolyn Rodrick, 35, in July 1995.

Bucci has declined to discuss the specifics of the case, but Rodrick’s attorney continued to question why authorities were arresting his client now.

Authorities suspect Carolyn Rodrick was murdered at her Irvine home, but the case will be handled in San Diego County, where authorities handled the bulk of the investigation.

Carolyn Rodrick’s body was found 20 feet down an embankment, in an illegal dumping site not far from where the Rodricks once considered buying property, investigators said.

On the night she disappeared, Daniel Rodrick reported her missing, telling police he suspected she had left him for another man. Daniel Rodrick has repeatedly denied any involvement in his wife’s death.

Janet Vanzyl, the victim’s sister, lives in South Africa but is preparing to fly to the U.S., and hopes to be given custody of the Rodricks’ 16-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter.

“They are the real victims here because they will be dealing with this for the rest of their lives,” said San Diego County Sheriff’s Det. Rick Scully, the lead investigator in the case.