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Community Theater Actress Charged For Aiding Her Fiancé In Gruesome Murders and Dismemberment
It's been more than two years since a pair of community college students were gruesomely murdered in Orange County. In May 2010, Samuel Herr, 26, a veteran from Afghanistan was shot twice in the head at a theater, dismembered and then dumped at park in Long Beach. Juri 'Julie' Kibuishi, 23, was also shot twice in the head and stripped of her clothing to make it appear that she had been sexually assaulted.
Daniel Wozniak, a community theater star, confessed to killing the pair after being arrested at his bachelor party just a few days before he was supposed to be married, but now investigators have zeroed in on his fiancée at the time, Rachel Buffett. Buffett, who was also a community theater star, was arrested and charged this week with being an accessory to the murder after the fact, according to the Orange County Register.
Herr was a neighbor who lived in the same apartment complex as Wozniak. Wozniak lured him to a theater on the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base before murdering him. He later texted Kibuishi from Herr's phone so that she would come over to Herr's apartment. Investigators believe that he killed the pair to gain access to Herr's bank account.
The Costa Mesa Police Department aren't saying exactly what Buffett's role might have been, but they said that she has been the subject of an "ongoing investigation." This week they said that after interviewing witnesses, they found "probable cause to arrest Buffett as an accessory after the fact in this murder case."
This week a Facebook group has sprung up called "Rachel Buffett Is Innocent." One of her friends writes:
God bless my friend Rachel Buffett!!! This is not justice, this is a desperate amd [sic] unlawful witch hunt. There is only one person who holds the blame for the murders, and they damn well know it. How dare the media and Costa Mesa PD attack her! I believe whole heartedly that she had nothing to do with anything.
Wozniak starred as Guido Contini in a production of "Nine" in Spring 2010, The Daily Mail reports. Buffett also had a role in the production. Police say that Wozniak managed to squeeze in a performance in between the killings. The Daily Mail has a bunch of photos of both Buffett and Wozniak performing in community productions.Related:
Search Continues for Dismembered Body Parts in Complex For-Profit Double Murder
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