Police, real estate agent assist in cold homicide case from California

A local man who thought he’d been hired to clean the carpet in a four-bedroom, two-story house in Maricopa’s Homestead community early last week was instead served a sealed search warrant and detained for questioning by Maricopa and California police.

That’s because Maricopa Police and a local real estate agent paired up with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office to help solve a cold case from the late 1980s involving the murder of a 13-year-old girl.

The carpet cleaner, whose name police have not released, was not a suspect in the original investigation according to Maricopa Police Spokesman Officer Stephen Judd. Recently, when the case was reopened, the man was identified as an investigative lead.

Judd said he was not at liberty to identify the name of the victim who was known to be an acquaintance of the local person of interest at the time of the murder.

Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies contacted local police in early January and asked for assistance before arriving last week.

“Within 24 hours we had a plan and made contact with this individual,” Maricopa Chief of Police Patrick Melvin said.

On Tuesday, Melvin personally presented a certificate of appreciation to local Realtor Jay Shaver for his part in the ruse during the weekly City Council meeting, which was open to the general public.

Shaver seemed pleased today when offered the chance to recount the experience.

“The chief had called me that morning, and said he needed me down at the police station within the hour,” Shaver said as he recalled the morning of Jan. 30. “He said, ‘I really can’t tell you what’s going on, but can you be here?’ I said ‘Sure, I will be there.'”

Although Shaver had previously met Melvin on a few occasions, he said receiving such a call was more than a tad unnerving.

“I was starting to think, ‘Oh my God; what have I done?'”

Upon his arrival at the police station, his uneasiness only grew.

“I was in this room with all these undercover detectives, and still no one had told me what was going on,” Shaver said. “They said they needed a vacant house. I work with investors in the area and I happened to have a house in the area where they needed it. So I made that house available to them, and that is where they did the operation.”

Shaver did not participate in arranging the meeting beyond providing the location and opening the door at about noon.

“One of the detectives already had done that,” he said.

Judd said he could not release the nature of the sealed search warrant, but said that about a half-dozen Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies took the man to the local police station for questioning.

“He wasn’t under arrest,” Judd said. “At this point, we don’t have any evidence that he was involved. He was an acquaintance of the person at the time of the incident.”

Whether he’s involved directly or indirectly, it appears that they have a lot of circumstantial evidence connecting him to the crime, Judd added. However, he shouldn’t be considered a suspect at this time or presumed dangerous or guilty.

Shaver, who lives in Tortosa with his wife, Kelli Shaver, and their 8-year-old son, didn’t stick around after letting police into the house. But he did follow up to find out how things went down.

“They said he was cooperative when he came in, that he kind of had a feeling something was up,” Shaver said. “They let him know what was going on. They were able to get his DNA and said they were looking at just how culpable he is right now.”

Judd said he could not comment on whether evidence was collected, but said he would provide updates if the investigation leads to an arrest.

“We would never be letting someone be walking free if there was enough evidence that they had committed a crime, regardless of whether it was 20 years ago,” Judd stressed.

Maricopa Police will continue to work with Riverside police to solve the case, and stressed that they are doing everything necessary to provide peace of mind to the community during the process.

Now that it’s over, Shaver said it’s somewhat disturbing knowing that someone in Maricopa might be a killer. He did note, however, that whatever happened was a long time ago, and that he’s not overly concerned for his or his family’s safety.

“As I was showing them the house and helping them to get set up, I jokingly said to one of the detectives, ‘So, who is going to play me in the movie?’ It is just kind of fun to think about,” Shaver said.

While the agent who sells homes through Fortuna Land and Realty said he appreciates the gesture of appreciation from Melvin, Shaver said it was unexpected.

“I didn’t do that much,” Shaver said. “I just went down to the police station when they needed me. I think they went above and beyond giving me the certificate of appreciation.”

Detective Jerry Franchville of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Media Information Bureau said the case didn’t sound familiar and could not immediately provide details regarding the cold case or last week’s police operation in Maricopa.

A spokeswoman for the Riverside County District Attorney said information about the victim would not be available unless or until police identify a suspect, charges are filed and they release a name.