Body found in freezer identified

A badly decomposed body found last month in the freezer of a man’s motor home has been identified as his 22-year-old daughter, authorities said Friday.

Through DNA testing, authorities determined that the body was that of Rebekah Butterfield, who was reported missing in June, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Her body was found wrapped in plastic inside the freezer of an abandoned motor home after it had been towed from Capistrano Beach.

Tests revealed that her body had been in the freezer for 22 to 24 months, Amormino said.

Orange County prosecutors have filed murder charges against Clarence Butterfield, 55, the motor home’s owner and the young woman’s father.

He had lived in the vehicle on a friend’s property in Capistrano Beach for several months before being arrested during a routine traffic stop in Dana Point in September.

Butterfield had an outstanding warrant from Las Vegas for allegedly interfering with a police officer and resisting arrest, and he is now in jail there.

Orange County officials were working to extradite Butterfield to California, Amormino said.

Rebekah Butterfield was reported missing by her mother. She had lived in Temecula and had not been seen by her mother, who lives on the East Coast, for years, Amormino said.

-- My-Thuan Tran