Police try to connect dots in Huntington Beach killings

Police are trying to figure out how, and why, a 32-year-old man wanted in the slayings of his uncle and grandfather in Sacramento ended up dead along with another man in an Orange County city park frequented by homeless people.

Abraham Felmley, 32, had been released from state prison earlier this year after serving time for a parole violation. Felmley had served time for a domestic violence conviction, said Sgt. Jason Ramos of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

Family members told detectives he was a transient who sometimes camped along rivers. They said he had a drug problem and strained relationships with some family members.

But so far no one has been able to point to a particular event that might have triggered the violence unleashed this week, Ramos said.

The slayings in Sacramento County were discovered after firefighters answered a call about 11 a.m. Monday reporting a fire at a small home in the southern part of the county. They rushed into the home looking for an elderly man who they’d been told might be inside, said Capt. Chris Quinn, a spokesman for the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

But when the fire grew too intense, they were forced to retreat. Later, as the blaze was brought under control, they searched the house.

Inside the home they found the bodies of Dennis Felmley, 62, and his father, Chesley Felmley, 84. Authorities said both men had suffered violent injuries not related to the fire. A gun was apparently missing from the home.

Police believe Abraham Felmley drove south hours later toward Merced in a white Toyota truck that belonged to either his father or uncle.

Felmley, police said, apparently spotted a man fishing near Highway 152, got out of the truck and demanded the man’s phone and the keys to his car, a 1992 green Toyota Camry.

From there, Felmley continued heading south. Why he ended his journey in Huntington Beach is unclear, though public records show he may have registered a business at an apartment in the city several years ago.

Also unclear is Felmley’s relationship to Robert Andres Duran, 49, of Huntington Beach, the man he is believed to have killed in Bartlett Park before turning the gun on himself, police said.

Felmley and Duran’s bodies were found in a heavily wooded section of the park off bustling Beach Boulevard and known locally as a homeless gathering spot. A gun was found nearby and the Camry was parked within walking distance.

On Tuesday, before learning he was already dead, prosecutors in Sacramento filed murder and arson charges against Felmley.

ALSO:

Child fatally hit in Santa Ana was not in crosswalk, police say

Driver shot after allegedly biting deputy and reaching for gun

L.A. Now Live: City approves Hollywood’s soaring skyscrapers

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com