Triple Murder Probe Focuses on Parolees

MODESTO, Calif. —  A sweeping manhunt for the killers of three Yosemite tourists is now focusing on a small cadre of Central Valley prison parolees who have a history of sex offenses, illegal drug arrests and weapons convictions.

A federal grand jury will begin looking this week at potential suspects, who include a wannabe Hells Angel arrested last month in the shooting of a Modesto police officer, and the jailed man’s half brother, who has been in and out of prison much of his adult life.

Also being looked at are at least two of their ex-convict acquaintances and one or two women who may have had some role in the slaying of a Eureka woman and two teenage girls, according to sources close to the case.

Investigators hope the federal grand jury in Fresno will open up what so far has been a tight-lipped circle of suspects, their friends and associates.

“They are dancing around and around this thing,” said one federal official. “Physical evidence is going to drive this case.”

Carole Sund, her daughter and a teenage friend from Argentina vanished outside Yosemite National Park in mid-February and were missing for more than a month, prompting one of the largest searches in state history by the FBI and law officers across Central California.

Investigators have been reticent in discussing any potential suspects. Nick Rossi, an FBI spokesman, declined to comment Tuesday, saying authorities do not want to hinder the ongoing probe.

But one law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said a key break came with the anonymous tip that led to the body of 15-year-old Juliana Sund on March 25 in the Sierra foothills. The tip proved so specific that officers quickly found the high school cheerleader’s remains in a thicket near a scenic overlook at a Tuolumne County reservoir.

The body appeared to have been dumped weeks before, although investigators have not revealed the cause of death. Several potential suspects have given blood or hair samples for testing, according to one official.

Cause of 2 Deaths Still Undetermined

Medical examiners still have not determined a cause of death for the two burned bodies found a week earlier in the trunk of the trio’s charred rental car, which was abandoned along an old logging road off a busy Sierra highway.

The bodies were so consumed by flames that authorities have called in forensic anthropologists to discern how they died. One victim has been identified as Carole Sund, 42. Officials believe the second is Silvina Pelosso, 16, although DNA tests are not complete.

A few scattered personal belongings found around the car also are expected to provide physical clues. But a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said it will probably be weeks before a definitive link can be established between the victims and any suspects because various lab tests are still pending.

Authorities say it remains unclear where the killings occurred or what events took place that led to the abduction of the three, who were last seen Feb. 15 at a restaurant in the tiny town of El Portal near the western entrance to Yosemite.

One federal official said investigators don’t have “anything close to a confession,” let alone a motive.

Among the career criminals who have emerged as a primary focus of the FBI probe are a pair of half brothers, one who grew up in the Central Valley and the other in the Sierra foothills.

The elder of the two is Michael Larwick, 42, who was arrested March 16 after a 14-hour standoff with Modesto police. Larwick, who goes by the nickname “Mick,” is accused of wounding an officer who tried to stop him for a falsified license plate.

At the time, police were puzzled by the shooting, which seemed an overreaction by a veteran criminal. But FBI agents grew more interested in Larwick when they discovered the torched car in Tuolumne County. The car was dumped a stone’s throw from Long Barn, a small community where Larwick grew up.

“We had no bead on him before the shootout,” said one federal source close to the investigation. “Then two days later we found the car and, given its location, we took a look at him. That’s when his behavior during the arrest, the shootout, raised some suspicion.”

Of the 40 FBI agents currently assigned to the case, the federal source said, the bulk are focusing on Larwick and his half brother, Eugene Dykes.

Larwick’s record includes convictions for attempted manslaughter, assault with a deadly weapon and rape in Tuolumne County. He returned to prison in 1989 after arrests for methamphetamine sales, auto theft and possession of a sawed-off shotgun and other weapons. In June of that year, he was arrested with a rocket launcher in his possession after fleeing a police officer.

One friend, however, says Larwick isn’t the type to commit murder.

“He was good people,” said Trudy Kay Northern, who has known Larwick for several years. “I’ve seen him burn a lot of bridges, but that was because of the drugs.” A longtime aficionado of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Larwick has the look of an outlaw biker, with bushy beard and tattoos. Larwick aspired to join the Hells Angels, one acquaintance said, but never was invited into the group.

Dykes, 32, also has been questioned extensively by FBI agents and remains in custody on a parole violation.

Like his older brother, Dykes has bounced back and forth to prison.

He was convicted of burglary and illegal weapons sales in 1982 at age 15. In 1986, a conviction for unlawful sexual intercourse and false imprisonment landed Dykes a three-year sentence. He got another two years in 1991 for selling illegal weapons. Another time, he was arrested when police serving a search warrant found Dykes in bed, a sawed-off shotgun propped up next to him.

In 1992, a parole agent called him a “danger to the community.”

Neighbor Says Possible Suspect Is ‘Nice Guy’

Dykes, who is known by the nickname “Rufus,” was raised by his grandmother and a truck-driver father after his parents divorced when he was 3. His father lives in a small trailer park near the railroad tracks in Empire, a tiny Central Valley town outside Modesto.

Neighbors there say Dykes always seemed like a friendly kid and a hard worker, despite all the trouble with the law. Dykes worked some in construction and as a plumber, they said. He was raised mostly by his church-going grandmother.

“He’s a nice guy,” said Ellis Hopkins, 85, a nearby resident. “I haven’t seen him in 10 years, but he once did some work for us, put a pump in. We always got along.”

Another neighbor said Dykes “would have had to have been completely out of his mind” to be involved in the Yosemite slayings. “He’s just not the type.”

Attempts to reach Dykes, Larwick and their attorneys were not successful.

FBI agents also have expanded their inquiry to focus on several acquaintances of the brothers who also have prison records, among them a 41-year-old Modesto man convicted of assault to commit rape in 1982.

A fourth potential suspect is a 32-year-old Modesto resident who served time in prison on drug possession charges and is being held at the Stanislaus County Jail on an unrelated parole violation.

Investigators now believe that at least three assailants were directly involved in the crimes, one officer said.

Friends and associates of Larwick and Dykes have not provided useful leads, the federal official said, either refusing to talk or telling stories that do not hold up under scrutiny. Several who will be called before the grand jury run in a circle of Modesto drug users and have criminal records, mostly for possession of methamphetamine, sources said.

Local and state law enforcement officials based in the San Joaquin Valley say that people abusing meth are responsible for many gruesome and violent crimes.

“They go on meth binges for days and days without sleep and they’re not just capable of violence anymore but of torturing someone and stabbing them multiple times,” said Robert Pennal, the supervising state narcotics agent investigating clandestine labs in the Central Valley.

Investigators seem to be edging away from two men from El Portal questioned in the case, but have not eliminated them completely as suspects. Both are ex-cons with violent backgrounds, and one was convicted in 1978 of entering the home of a Los Angeles woman--clad only in a T-shirt--and raping her. Neither of the El Portal men, one law officer said, appears to have a connection to the group of parolees from Modesto.