Standoff on 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa ends peacefully

The 55 Freeway briefly shut down in both directions Wednesday at the Del Mar Avenue/Fair Drive exit in Costa Mesa when a motorist called 911 to say she was armed and that her father was an infamous serial killer.

California Highway Patrol officers found the woman parked near the center divider at about noon with a sign on the back of her car indicating her father was the I-45 Texas killer.

“She was telling the [CHP] she wanted her story to be told that her father was the Texas serial killer,” said CHP Officer Florentino Olivera said.

The woman, who had a flare gun, eventually surrendered without incident, Olivera said. The freeway was reopened by about 1:30 p.m.

The woman’s identity and possible charges were not immediately available.

The Texas serial murders she referenced are complicated and mostly unsolved.

The bodies of more than 20 girls and women were found in the swampy “Texas Killing Fields” off Interstate 45 in the Houston area between the 1970s and early 1990s. One suspect, Mark Roland Stallings, confessed to killing several women in the area and is serving life in a Texas prison on unrelated charges. Police, however, believe there was more than one killer, and many of the cases remain unsolved.

City News Service contributed to this report.

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