Alleged Beatle stalker is killed
A woman who pleaded no contest to trespassing at the Hawaii home of former Beatle George Harrison seven years ago has been found dead in a blood-splattered vehicle, apparently the victim of a murder-suicide, police said.
Cristin Keleher, 34, served four months in jail after her arrest for entering Harrison’s house in Maui in December 1999. Prosecutors accused her of stalking the former rock star.
After entering the home through an open sliding-glass door, she cooked a frozen pizza, did her laundry and phoned her mother in New Jersey.
On Dec. 19, a hiker found the bodies of Keleher and Stanley Merchant, 48, near a highway north of Truckee. Investigators said evidence shows that Keleher was fatally shot outside the vehicle, then placed inside and driven a short distance. Investigators believe that Merchant sat down next to Keleher’s body and shot himself in the head. Two 12-gauge shotguns were found next to him inside the vehicle.
Keleher was arrested a week before Harrison was stabbed by an intruder in his mansion near London. Harrison died of cancer in 2001. He was 58.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
