Suspected CHP Killer Is the Son of an Officer Gone Bad

The man accused of fatally shooting a California Highway Patrol officer near Woodland is the son of a Bay Area police officer who killed himself after robbing a bank in 1997, according to court records and news accounts at the time.

Brendt Anthony Volarvich, 20, of Roseville, Calif., is one of three people being held in the death of CHP Officer Andy Stevens, 37, also of Roseville.

The 13-year CHP veteran was shot in the head Thursday during a routine traffic stop, triggering a manhunt involving hundreds of police officers.

Lindsey Jane Montgomery, 20, of Woodland also was in Yolo County Jail on suspicion of harboring a fugitive and homicide. She is being held on $75,000 bail, and was described as Volarvich’s girlfriend. She was arrested with him early Friday at a hotel in Rocklin, Calif.

Gregory Zielesch, 47, of Woodland was being held without bail on suspicion of homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide. He was arrested later Friday.

All three face arraignment Monday.

Volarvich was 12 when his father, former Los Altos Police Officer Dennis Volarvich, committed suicide after the December 1997 robbery of a Bank of America branch in Fremont. He shot himself as police approached his getaway van.

He had left the Los Altos department to work as an investigator for the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, but resigned after having an affair with a murder victim’s widow while investigating a 1993 case, said Karyn Sinunu, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County prosecutors’ office. His private investigations business faltered.

Placer County Court records show the younger Volarvich was arrested in a January 2004 burglary in Roseville and pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property. He was ordered to undergo drug treatment instead of jail time.

Volarvich was expelled from the drug program for bringing methamphetamine into the facility, and served 85 days in jail for a probation violation before entering and completing another drug program.

He was released in February, but continued having problems with drugs and was due back in court Dec. 1 for a judge to decide whether he should be sent to state prison.

Attorney C. David Eyster, who represented Volarvich last year, said he spoke with Volarvich’s mother, Sheila.

“She’s very shaken ... in regards to the family of the officer and in regards to her son,” he told the Sacramento Bee.

“Having been the wife of a police officer, this is devastating to her.”

Eyster called Volarvich “a nice kid who had some troubles and was having problems overcoming his drug addiction.”