Young Woman’s Remains Identified

A bizarre Marin County murder mystery involving the family of blues guitarist Elvin Bishop took a grisly turn Wednesday as authorities identified one of three dismembered bodies pulled from a Sacramento County river as that of Bishop’s missing 22-year-old daughter.

Since Monday, police divers have recovered eight gym bags containing what authorities say are the remains of Selina Bishop and an elderly Bay Area couple reported missing last week.

Selina Bishop’s stockbroker boyfriend was identified Wednesday as the lead suspect in a total of five slayings. The victims include Selina’s mother and her mother’s boyfriend, who were found shot to death in the daughter’s apartment Aug. 3.

That was the same day the young waitress vanished after telling friends she was going to Yosemite National Park with her boyfriend.

The case involving the family of the popular blues singer has captured the Bay Area’s attention for days as police have followed a trail of body bags, fingerprints and other clues that detectives say link the killings to Glenn Helzer.

“This is a terrible, unsettling thing,” said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Arnal as he stood Wednesday afternoon alongside the Mokelumne River, where body parts were still being recovered.

Marin County authorities arrested Helzer, 30, Monday at his Concord home on suspicion of robbery, burglary and other charges. Also arrested were Helzer’s 28-year-old brother, Justin, and friend Dawn Godman, 26.

Investigators said all three are now suspects in the five slayings.

Police divers scouring the murky bottom of the Mokelumne in Sacramento County have recovered eight nylon utility bags whose contents include a head and at least one torso.

As 10 police divers and two search boats continued the hunt near isolated Brannan Island, coroners Wednesday identified the remains of Selina Bishop, along with those of Ivan Stineman, 85, of Concord and his wife, Annette, 78.

The Stinemans were former neighbors of Helzer, and he once worked for them, authorities said. The three victims suffered blunt trauma before being dismembered, according to police.

When asked about a motive, Harold Jewett, a deputy district attorney in Contra Costa County, where Concord is located, responded: “Money.” He did not elaborate.

The Stinemans were reported missing Aug. 3, and three days later their Chevrolet minivan was found abandoned in Oakland with the keys inside. Police said palm prints belonging to Helzer and his brother were later found in the van.

Also on Aug. 3, authorities discovered the bodies of Selina Bishop’s mother, Jennifer Villarin, 45, and Joseph Gamble, 54. They apparently had been shot to death in Selina’s studio apartment in the rustic Woodacre section of wealthy Marin County.

Villarin and Gamble, who were apparently shot repeatedly in their sleep, had been house-sitting while Selina was on the trip to Yosemite with her boyfriend, authorities said. Selina was reported missing the day the bodies were discovered.

Elvin Bishop, who lives in the Marin County community of Lagunitas, was summoned home from a concert tour after his former wife’s body was discovered.

The guitarist is best known for his 1976 hit, “Fooled Around and Fell in Love.” Selina was his only child with Villarin.

“All of us in the Bay Area music scene are really, really upset by this,” said Tom Mazzolini, producer of the San Francisco Blues Festival, at which Elvin Bishop is scheduled to perform next month.

The case began to unravel Monday when the California Department of Fish and Game received a report about a bag containing body parts along a remote section of the Mokelumne, about 50 miles south of Sacramento.

A team of divers eventually turned up seven more bags, some of which were weighted with rocks and other debris, Sgt. Arnal said.

“The bags just kept floating to the surface; that’s how we were able to find them,” Arnal said. “Many were weighted with rocks. They’re sport-utility nylon bags, the kind you can buy at a Kmart or a Wal-Mart.”

Arnal said the discovery was one of the most troubling experiences of his 28-year career.

“It ranks right up there,” he said. “You might find one body, but rarely do you find so many body parts strewn all over a river.”

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Times staff writers John Johnson and Richard Cromelin contributed to this story.