*

5.31.2010

man held in gruesome double murder

This is a crazy story out of Southern California, about a grisly murder which has had authorities searching for body parts at a Long Beach park. Police found the final missing body part -- a severed head -- on Sunday.

In Los Angeles, 26-year-old Daniel Wozniak is accused of killing and
dismembering Samuel Herr, and killing Herr's friend Juri Kibuishi for money: Police: Search turns up head of slain Calif. man.
Investigators believe Herr was shot and killed in a theater at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base. His torso was found in the theater's attic May 21.

Authorities have not said why the two were at the base. However, Herr was an Army veteran who had served in Afghanistan, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. He and Kibuishi were both students at Orange Coast College.

Authorities allege Wozniak shot Herr, then cut off his head, left arm and right hand. Investigators said Wozniak told them where to find the torso.

Wozniak also is accused of shooting Kibuishi after summoning her with a text message on Herr's phone. Authorities believe Wozniak removed Kibuishi's clothes to fake a sexual assault. Herr's father found her body in Herr's apartment May 22.

Wozniak, a stage actor, had recently appeared in the leading role in the musical "Nine" at the Hunger Artists Theater Company in Fullerton. He had money problems, and police believe the motive was financial.
Kibuishi was apparently Herr's anthropology tutor. This entire thing is insane... and apparently motivated by money? Herr and Kibuishi are dead because Wozniak was short on cash? Completely senseless. More here: Actor is held in the slaying of a Costa Mesa man, 26, and his tutor.