Discovery of Body Parts Is at Center of 2 Mysteries

Authorities investigating a slaying and dismemberment in Canoga Park spent Monday trying to unravel two mysteries: the identity of the victim and the whereabouts of the suspect’s daughter, who disappeared four years ago at age 10.

An Oregon detective flew to Los Angeles to serve a warrant on Karen Lee Huster, who was being held at the Twin Towers jail without bail on the Canoga Park slaying and the possible death of her daughter, Elisabeth Anne Huster, who was last seen in August 1996.

Los Angeles County coroner’s officials examined the remains of a man found Friday in two freezers in an apartment on De Soto Avenue. After forcing their way into the apartment, police arrested Huster, who had what authorities said were self-inflicted stab wounds.

A 73-year-old man who lives at the Park Place apartments has been reported missing, but coroner’s officials said they have yet to positively identify the remains as his. They said an autopsy will be completed today.

Huster refused to identify herself and was booked as “Jane Doe.” Los Angeles police said she has not yet been charged, but was being held on the Oregon murder warrant.

“She is not going anywhere,” said Los Angeles Police Officer Jason Lee.

Washington County Sheriff’s Det. John Stratford flew to Los Angeles to serve a murder warrant on Huster, said Sgt. Marlene Gaskins of the Oregon agency.

Meanwhile, authorities in Oregon and Arizona gave more details of Huster’s recent movements and legal troubles.

According to Washington County sheriff’s office reports, after authorities began asking about Huster’s missing daughter in December 1996, Huster disappeared and turned up two months later in the seaside town of Newport, Ore.

Authorities seized a .22-caliber handgun from Huster’s motel room there, said Rick Knapp, a Washington County senior deputy district attorney.

Defying a judge’s orders, Huster refused to say where her child was, and was sentenced to prison in June 1997 for custodial interference. She was released in February 1999, and returned to Washington County on parole, Knapp said.

Huster’s father, Thomas S. Ruggles, and brother, Thomas W. Ruggles, both of California, moved to Oregon to help her put her life back together, Knapp said, and she complied with the terms of her parole until Oct. 10, 1999. On that date, Knapp said, she stole a number of items from a woman she had met while incarcerated, including her Social Security card, which authorities believed Huster was planning to use to establish a new identity.

Knapp, the prosecutor in the case, said he pressed to have Huster sent back to prison, but in February of this year, she was given three years’ probation instead.

Meanwhile, the Washington County district attorney’s office was preparing for a possible indictment of Huster, even though there was no sign of her daughter’s body, Knapp added.

The indictment was handed up in April, but Huster disappeared again after her brother and father were served subpoenas to testify before a grand jury, Knapp said. Huster was living with her father at the time.

“There was no way we could have kept [the indictment] secret,” Knapp said.

On April 19, Huster showed up in Kingman, Ariz., at the home of an uncle, Richard Ruggles, said Det. Jim McAnally of the Kingman Police Department. She was driving her father’s car, McAnally said.

Richard Ruggles told police the fugitive did not give him any details of her plight. He either drove her downtown or to the Amtrak station--his story has varied, McAnally said--and she was not heard from again until this month.

Her former husband, Michael Huster, said she had had behavioral problems, but “we all act a little strange sometimes.”

“This is as much a surprise to me as anyone else,” Michael Huster said from his home in Pleasanton, Calif. “She would say how awful the world is today, how it’s not good to raise kids in it. She didn’t make any specific comments about murder or suicide, but something very negative was going on inside her.”

Huster said his ex-wife attended Chatsworth High School and Cal State Northridge, though she did not graduate. She earned a certificate from West Valley Occupational Center in graphic arts.

“She was very quick to anger,” Huster said. “I couldn’t say anything without her exploding.”

He held out the possibility that his daughter might be alive.

“I hope this whole thing answers questions about my daughter,” Huster said. “I hope she’s alive. That’s all I want to know.”

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Krikorian is a Times staff writer; Fausset is a correspondent. Times correspondent Grace E. Jang also contributed to this story.