Suspect is held in ’64 slaying

For 43 years, the rape and murder of a Santa Ana woman remained unsolved.

But on Friday, police working on the cold case said they finally had their man: 67-year-old Charles Edward Faith.

Faith, of Phelan in San Bernardino County, was booked Friday at Santa Ana Jail on suspicion of committing the Feb. 16, 1964, rape and murder of Christina Elizabeth Wariner, 47.

Wariner, the live-in manager of a motel, was found beaten to death with a blunt instrument at her residence after apparently being sexually assaulted, said Cpl. Jose Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department.

Homicide detectives thoroughly investigated the crime at the time, Gonzalez said, but were never able to identify a suspect.

Last year, a special investigative unit focusing on old crimes reviewed the files on Wariner’s killing and discovered that some of the evidence was still available and could be tested with modern forensic technology. As a result, Gonzalez said, detectives were able to match old fingerprints found at the scene with those belonging to Faith.

“Back in 1964, the process of collecting and matching fingerprints was all done manually,” Gonzalez said.

Faith’s fingerprints “were either not in the system at the time, or, because of how they were handled back then, not easily identified,” he said. “Due to today’s technology, with automation and computers, it’s a lot easier to match and compare.”

After a follow-up investigation involving numerous interviews, Gonzalez said, detectives traced Faith to his home in Phelan, where he was arrested Thursday without incident.

Authorities did not know what he had been doing all these years or how his fingerprints came to be in the criminal-justice system.

Reached by phone at her home in Florence, Ala., Wariner’s daughter, Christina Lonzo, 64, said she was surprised by the arrest.

“I’m in a daze here,” she said. “I’m relieved. I really didn’t think this would ever happen.”

Describing her mother as someone with a “very complicated and sad life,” Lonzo said she hopes to learn more about her death.

“You always have questions,” she said. “I want to know what happened. I hope I find that out. The system has finally done something for her, and that makes me feel good.”

The detectives who believe they’ve cracked the case are feeling happy too.

“It’s getting harder and harder to hide,” Gonzalez said.

“With the use of modern technology, criminals are becoming more and more evident,” he said. “It’s really satisfying to know that the right people are being identified and brought to justice when they commit these types of crimes.”

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david.haldane@latimes.com