Man Killed After Double-Cross in Scheme, Police Say

An Illinois man whose bullet-riddled body was found floating off Seal Beach in March was killed because he tried to double-cross four accomplices in a money-laundering scheme, police said Thursday.

Seal Beach Detective Darrell Hardin said Jeffrey L. Grabbe, 29, of Marshall, Ill., had been involved in a scheme to launder $7 million in stolen and forged bank notes, money orders and counterfeit money and was killed and then dumped into the ocean by his cohorts.

“Jeff had some property of the others,” Hardin said. “He got too greedy.”

Grabbe’s body was discovered by boaters March 22 in 35 feet of water 1 1/2 miles off Seal Beach. He had been shot three times in the head and tied to a 16-pound anchor. Police said the body partially decomposed and broke away from the anchor.

His remains were identified through dental records from Grabbe’s hometown of Marshall, a farming community of 4,000 people near the Indiana state line.

Hardin said two of the suspects were already jailed on unrelated theft and drug charges while the other two had been cooperating with authorities. He would not identify any of the suspects but said he expected the Orange County district attorney’s office to bring charges within the next month.

He said the two men in jail would probably be charged with murder while the other two could face charges of accessory to murder.

“We got the information through the other parties in the crime,” Hardin said. “. . . They told us how, where and when it happened. They have told us why it happened.”

Grabbe was reported missing in February from the Illinois farm community where he had testified against his father, who was convicted of murdering Grabbe’s mother. The conviction was overturned, and Grabbe was scheduled to take the stand in his father’s second trial when he disappeared.