Arrests in "the Bunker Murders" in Covina, CA

Earlier this month, teens gathered for a party in an abandoned Air Force bunker in the high desert in Helendale, California. Local youths had long ago taken over the abandoned installation, covering sturdy concrete walls with graffiti, taking target practice with random junk found in the area. Parents were aware of the gathering place, but perhaps not aware of how popular it truly was.

By the time that particular party on the night of January 5, 2008 was over, two good kids were dead inside the bunker.

The victims were Christopher Cody Thompson, age 18, and his girlfriend, 16-year-old Bodhisattva "Bodhi" Sherzer-Potter. Their deaths shocked the community, to say the least.

Police made 2 arrests in this case on Thursday, January 17 -- 18-year-old Colin Lee McGlaughlin and David Brian Smith, age 19.

Naturally, local media jumped on Collin Lee McGlaughlin's MySpace info right away; his profile and the lone blog entry he'd made didn't help his image as an accused killer.

MySpace took his profile offline after it was posted to social bookmarking sites. Neither Collin Lee's blog nor his profile page are currently public.

Good thing I saw that coming. The following links are to mirrors I constructed of Mr. McGlaughlin's MySpace profile and his blog. Since they are mirrors made with code saved from the pages when they were live, some formatting is missing, but the content is the same:

http://mirror.huffsblog.com/collinleemyspace.htm (the "view more" link from this page will take you to McGlaughlin's blog).
http://mirror.huffsblog.com/collinleemyspaceblog.htm. (note the comments left after the blog was mentioned in the news).

This may be a weblog Collin Lee McGlaughlin started 3 years ago and then abandoned -- the age, name, and birthdate of the owner are the same as the accused:

http://www.xanga.com/macdaddy66677.

If it is indeed McGlaughlin's, the Xanga may be just as revealing as the MySpace weblog, perhaps moreso.

Tips, insight, or background on the case are welcome, just go here to contact me.

Source: the Los Angeles Times.

I've posted a thread at Websleuths.com about this case.

(NOTE: The True Crime Weblog is up for a "Capote Award," according to Corey Mitchell, who runs In Cold Blog. Go here to vote for this site, if you are so inclined. Also, as of Tuesday, 1/22/08, I have a new post about American Idol up at RadarOnline.com. Check it out and recommend it if you like it.)

Quick Notes, 1/17/08

In case any regular readers have wondered about the slow pace of posting here and the abbreviated nature of recent entries, please remember that I'm doing other writing (for pay, go figure) here.

Most recently, my writing for Radar Online has not been crime-related at all:

“Pranksters Invade American Idol Return.”

“American Idol, TX: Will the Pain Ever End?“

Mind you, I consider myself a fan of American Idol. For some musing from me on why the posts you'll read above are not particularly positive, read this entry in my personal weblog.

On the crime front, just check out this entry about the arrest of the alleged killer of Tori Vienneau and her baby son, Dean Springstube:

"BREAKING NEWS: Dennis Potts Arrested in San Diego."

I've never been as close to a story as I have to the story of the murders of Tori and Dean. Links from the preceding entry may illustrate why. There'll be much more to come about that case as the accused progresses through California's justice system.

NOTE ADDED 1/20/08

Corey Mitchell's In Cold Blog (I'm a former contributor) has a post up for what Corey's calling the Capote awards. I've been nominated for two. Please go check out the post and vote for me and/or this blog if you like. I personally made other choices with my votes, but I'm usually the poorest judge of this kind of thing.

BREAKING NEWS: Dennis Potts Arrested in San Diego

I just spoke with Dayna Herroz, Tori Vienneau's mother, grandmother to Tori's infant son, Dean Springstube.

Dayna confirmed that the long-time person of interest in the July, 2006 murders of Tori and Dean, Dennis Potts, was arrested this morning in San Diego, California. Below are links to past blog entries about this case as well as the discussion about it at Websleuths.com. More will be added to this post later, but the past entries below should bring anyone not familiar with this horrific case up to speed.

• Websleuths thread 1, thread 2.
• "Leaping off the page.... Tori and Dean" -- True Crime Magazine, (formerly known as CrimeBlog.US), August 11, 2006.
• "Tori & Dean... How Much Longer?" -- True Crime Magazine, November 8, 2006.
• "An Interview With Dayna Herroz..." -- True Crime Magazine, November 13, 2006.
• "*Breaking News* -- The Vienneau and Springstube Murders" -- True Crime Magazine, December 24, 2006.
• "Messages from the Dead: Tori and Dean" -- True Crime Weblog, June 12, 2007.
• A Voice for Tori and Dean.

UPDATE, 5:41 p.m. ET -- CONFIRMATION OF ARREST

This would have been posted nearly an hour ago, but the Atlanta area has been hit with snow, so naturally the power in my neighborhood went out for about an hour. The following is from the San Diego Police Department:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Lieutenant Kevin Rooney
Date: January 16, 2008 (Wednesday)
Homicide Unit
Time: 1315 Hours
(619) 531-2425

ARRESTS MADE IN JULY, 2006 DOUBLE MURDER

San Diego Police Department Homicide Unit detectives have arrested two suspects involved in the July, 2006 murders of Tori Vienneau and her 10-month-old son, Dean Springstube.

At the time of the murders, Tori and Dean were living in an apartment in Mountain View. On July 26, 2006, at approximately 8:50 p.m., their roommate found Tori and Dean strangled to death.

Homicide Team III investigated the case for the past 18 months and coordinated the investigation with the Family Protection Unit of the District Attorney's Office. This morning, detectives obtained arrest warrants charging Dennis Potts, 23, with two counts of murder and conspiracy to obstruct justice, and Max Corn, 23, with conspiracy to obstruct justice.

At 9:05 a.m., detectives arrested Corn as he used an ATM at 4500 Bonita Road in Bonita. At 9:55 a.m., detectives arrested Potts as he drove in the 4900 block of Bonita Road.

Potts and Corn are being processed at Headquarters before booking into County Jail.

Justice isn't always swift. But it is usually sure.

UPDATE, 7:57 p.m. ET

Maxwell Harrison Corn's booking page with the San Diego County Jail.

The same page for Dennis Potts.

NOTES, 1/14/08

Yes, the pace of posting is slow, lately. I do have a new, crime-related post up at RadarOnline.com:

"Pulp Fiction Co-writer Arrested on DUI, Manslaughter Charges."

The title tells a lot, but check out the post and recommend it, if you like.

The following True Crime Weblog post has active commentary:

"Who is Gary Michael Hilton?" -- about the alleged serial killer recently arrested here in North Georgia.

-- Check it out if you are interested in the case. I've also made a couple of new posts at my personal, infrequently-updated weblog, Random Lunatic News.

Gary Michael Hilton & Michael Scot Louis

Not so fast, AJC. Orlando Sentinel criminal justice reporter Willoughby Mariano has an interesting post up at the paper's Orlando Homicide Report weblog. It refutes the Atlanta paper's reporting on attempts to link Gary Michael Hilton with the mutiltation murder of 27-year-old Michael Scot Louis, whose dismembered remains were found in early December in the Tomoka River in Florida. Police in Ormond Beach see "no reason to link Gary Michael Hilton to the Ormond Beach case."

Also related to Hilton and his possible string of murders throughout the south: "Gary M. Hilton(,) Serial Killer??"

The link takes you to a forum at Websleuths.com set aside just to discuss this case and Gary Hilton. If you're already a member of that forum (I posted in the past as "misterallgood," and just recently decided to post as "SteveHuff"), you should join in, and if you're not, look into joining the discussion. Websleuths is one of the more troll-free true crime message boards around.

NOTE, 1/16/08

I've got another post up at RadarOnline.com. While this one isn't crime-related, it did involve a wee bit of websleuthing:

"Pranksters Invade American Idol Return."