Alvarez Was Suspect From the Start, Papers Show

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Kali Manley obtained search warrants for David Alvarez’s residences after hearing a report that Alvarez showed up at a friend’s house in blood-stained clothes and asked for help in getting rid of a body, according to court documents.

But the newly released documents also show that the friend denied that Alvarez ever made such a request. The friend did say Alvarez had blood on his clothes, which he explained came from a bloody nose sustained in a fight.

Search warrants on three Ojai Valley residences occupied by Alvarez were released by court order on Monday, three months after Alvarez was charged with killing the Oak View 14-year-old and dumping her body in a remote area near Ojai.

The warrants show that police collected fingernails and hair samples from a mobile home that Alvarez’s parents were buying for him. A pink shirt was seized from his mother-in-law’s house in Ojai, the warrants show. The documents did not say whether the items were matched with Manley.

Alvarez, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted rape. Prosecutors allege he strangled Manley while trying to force her to have sex with him in the early morning hours of Dec. 20.

Her naked body was found in a drainage pipe in the mountains behind Ojai a week later, after Alvarez led authorities to her.

Although the Sheriff’s Department initially denied that Alvarez was a suspect, court records unsealed Monday as a result of a motion brought by a Ventura County news organization show detectives focused their investigation on him right away.

Two days after Manley’s disappearance, a woman tipped detectives to a report that Alvarez had unexpectedly showed up at a friend’s house, covered in blood, and asked for help in burying the body of someone he had killed, according to the search warrant affidavit signed by Det. William Gentry.

But when detectives contacted the friend, Eric Appoldt, he denied that Alvarez tried to solicit his help in disposing a body.

Appoldt did tell authorities, however, that Alvarez came to his house around 10 a.m. on Dec. 20, wearing a light-colored T-shirt and jeans spotted with blood. Appoldt told detectives he asked Alvarez about the blood stains.

“Eric said Alvarez responded by saying he had been in a fight ‘last night’ and suffered a ‘bloody nose,’ ” according to court documents.

Appoldt told detectives that he was surprised by Alvarez’s visit, explaining that he did not feel they were close friends.

The statements were included in search warrants ordered unsealed by Judge Edward F. Brodie.

In one of those documents, Gentry states that Manley apparently left a sleepover at a friend’s house sometime before midnight on Dec. 19 and climbed into a truck with Alvarez and his friend, Robert Miears.

During a Dec. 22 interview, Miears told Gentry the trio bought some wine coolers at a Circle K convenience store and drove to Alvarez’s nearby trailer, the documents show. Prior to that, Miears said, Alvarez used cocaine.

Once in the trailer, Miears told the detective, Alvarez and Manley started drinking. He said Alvarez later led her to a master bedroom. He came back out and said he intended to have sex with her, and that Miears could stay or go. Miears told Gentry he fell asleep and woke the next morning to find Manley and Alvarez gone.

After the interview, Gentry obtained a warrant to search the trailer and Alvarez’s green pickup truck.

“Based on my training and experience,” he wrote in one affidavit, “I feel that Kali Manley may have fallen victim to foul play and that the trailer and vehicle described in this document may contain evidence of those acts.”

The same night at about 11 p.m., two forensic experts with the county’s crime lab searched the trailer and found fingernail parts, a clump of blond hair and earrings on the master bedroom carpet, according to court records.

Before the search, Gentry wrote that authorities were looking for weapons, hair fibers, clothing, alcohol containers and pain medication.

A petite girl with blond hair, Manley was last seen wearing a pink tank top, blue jeans and a black Adidas sweatshirt. Manley’s friend told deputies she was not sure whether Manley was wearing earrings the night she disappeared.

On Dec. 23, Gentry sought additional warrants to search the Ojai homes of Alvarez’s parents and his mother-in-law. They also searched a motel room where Miears was living at the time.

Authorities seized three handguns and a rifle in a gun case in Eugene and Marie Alvarez’s garage, as well as a pair of men’s jeans in a laundry basket, court records show. They also seized Alvarez’s truck, which was parked outside the Longhorn Lane house.

Forensics experts took soil samples from the tires and pulled a piece of tar from the bed of the truck which contained some hair, the warrants show. At the mother-in-law’s house, authorities found a pink shirt on top of a kitchen cabinet as well as prescription medication in Alvarez’s name.

After conducting those searches, authorities executed a warrant on Alvarez himself, taking blood and saliva samples at the county jail where he was being held on a charge of making terrorist threats.

Alvarez’s preliminary hearing in the murder case is set for July 27.