Search Ends With Arrest of Wife

The wife of a Sacramento lawyer poisoned him, refrigerated and later buried his body in a shallow grave, then led police on a nationwide manhunt in a red Jaguar convertible, her 17-year-old daughter in tow, authorities said.

The search ended Tuesday as authorities in Florida announced the arrest of Laren Renee Sims, 36, in connection with the murder of her husband, attorney Larry McNabney, whose body was discovered buried in a San Joaquin County vineyard last month.

“I’m the one you are looking for,” Sims told a sheriff’s deputy in Destin, Fla., a beach resort, as the officer approached her late Monday night.

San Joaquin County authorities charge that Sims, who also has used the name Elisa McNabney, and an accomplice poisoned Larry McNabney with horse tranquilizers last September and stored his body, wrapped in sheeting, in a garage refrigerator for months until Sims buried him. Sims sold off McNabney’s office assets, horses and a truck, closed the law practice and disappeared in January, eluding authorities by using fake names and pilfered credit cards, police said.

Sims’ daughter, Haylie Jordan, is not believed to have been involved, authorities said.

San Joaquin County sheriff’s officials said Tuesday that Sims had signed a three-page statement admitting her role in the murder and implicating Sarah Elizabeth Dutra, 21, who had worked in McNabney’s law office and befriended Sims. Dutra, who earlier offered what San Joaquin County officials characterized as inconsistent statements, was arrested after questioning Tuesday at the sheriff’s headquarters in French Camp.

“Once Elisa McNabney implicated [Dutra], we brought her in and she’s made some pretty incriminating statements regarding her involvement,” said Deputy Nelida Stone, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.

According to the Sims statement, Dutra took part in the poisoning and then helped transport McNabney, still semiconscious, to Yosemite National Park, where the two planned to bury him, police said.

But Sims could not go through with the burial while her husband was still alive, and the two women took him home, where he died the following day, authorities said, citing the statement.

Stone said Sims did not offer a motive.

San Joaquin County investigators were in Florida on Tuesday awaiting word on whether Sims would waive her right to an extradition hearing.

Sims was to be arraigned today in Okaloosa County.

Florida investigators said they believe that Sims, using the alias Shane Ivaroni, had been living since late January in Florida’s panhandle, where she was working two jobs, as a paralegal and as a waitress in a chophouse.

At the time she was arrested by Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputies on the murder warrant from California, Sims also was wanted by three Florida counties for violating probation, said Cpl. Rick Hord, spokesman for the Okaloosa County sheriff’s office. Hord said Sims has a long criminal history.

“Apparently, she’s a con artist, for lack of a better word,” he said. “She’s apparently made a career by changing names, changing appearances, fooling people along the way.”

In the end, Hord said, it was an act of deception that helped deputies track Sims down.

Last week, she took off with an acquaintance’s pickup truck after staying at his home for the night, leaving a hurried farewell note and her Jaguar behind, Hord said. The Dodge pickup turned up abandoned Monday night in the parking lot of a Winn-Dixie supermarket. Not far away, Sims, wearing the same blue jeans and red jacket that police had been looking for, was intercepted as she ambled from the beach into the swimming pool area of a condominium high-rise.

“She gave no resistance whatsoever. She had just gotten tired of running. Her days of being able to run were over,” Hord said.

Hord said Sims’ daughter was staying with relatives. He said Okaloosa deputies found the girl, who was using the name Penelope Ivaroni, in one of the residences where it was thought Sims might turn up. The daughter told police where to find the pickup.

“It does not appear that she knew of the severe details” of the California allegations, Hord said.

At Destin Chops, where Sims--calling herself Shane Ivaroni--waited tables until about a week and a half ago, employees were taken aback by the news.

“She seemed like a great person to everyone,” said the manager, who declined to provide his name during a brief telephone interview. “It’s a little bit of a nauseous feeling for some of us.”