CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department reported that it has made two arrests – and expects to make more – in the homicide last fall of a Hidden Valley Lake man.
Sgt. Nick Bennett said Tuesday that police have taken into custody Clearlake residents Gary Joseph Williams, 30, and Crystal Rae Pearls, 41, for participating in the murder of Guillermo Figueroa.
The 36-year-old Figueroa – a husband and father of three – was reported missing on Oct. 27 after he left to visit a friend in Clearlake, as Lake County News has reported.
Clearlake Police officers subsequently found a vehicle registered to him abandoned on Burns Valley Road, and pinged his cell phone to an area in Clearlake.
On the night of Nov. 28, police responded to a report from a resident in the 2700 block of Oleander Street regarding the discovery in his yard of a human skull, which the man believed his dog may have brought to the residence.
The following day – as teams of detectives, sheriff's deputies, K-Corps members and out-of-county law enforcement personnel combed the isolated, heavily wooded part of the city where the skull was found – a search dog discovered the partial remains of a human body about 100 yards from the residence where the skull was found.
Police said autopsy and DNA results matched the skull and remains as belonging to the same person – Figueroa.
Since then, the Clearlake Police Department, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the California State Department of Justice have been involved in a joint investigation into Figueroa's disappearance and murder, Bennett said.
Bennett said that on Friday prosecutors from the California Attorney General's Office went before a Lake County Superior Court judge seeking charges against Williams and Pearls for participating in Figueroa's murder.
Williams is charged with murder, along with special allegations that he committed the crime while involved in a robbery. He's also facing other crimes relating to the murder, according to Bennett.
Both Williams and Pearls are charged with terrorist threats, dissuading a witness, burglary and special allegations regarding threatening witnesses in the investigation, Bennett said.
Separately, Bennett said Pearls is charged with being an accessory to a crime.
Williams and Pearls have been in custody since last November after they stole a house trailer, Bennett said.
Both are being held without bail, according to jail records.
Bennett said the murder investigation is ongoing and additional arrests are expected to be made soon.
Any person with information in relation to this case is encouraged to contact Clearlake Police Det. Ryan Peterson at 707-994-8251, Extension 320, or Department of Justice Agent Heather Nelsen at 510-515-2673.