Police make grisly discovery in Long Beach park

The head of a man allegedly dismembered by a Costa Mesa actor was found at El Dorado Park in Long Beach, a police sergeant confirmed Sunday.

A search team consisting of the FBI and the Long Beach and Costa Mesa police departments discovered a human head that is probably that of Samuel Eliezer Herr, 26, about noon Saturday in the park's nature preserve area, said Costa Mesa police Sgt. Patrick Wessel.

"We suspect it's Herr's head. But the coroner will be handling the investigation,'' Wessel said. "We believe we've covered everything that is outstanding. The investigation is continuing and will be prepared for court.''

Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 26, is accused of murdering and dismembering Herr, his neighbor, and then luring Herr's tutor, Juri Kibuishi, 23, of Irvine, to Herr's apartment, shooting her and arranging her body to make it look like Herr had sexually assaulted her.

Wozniak, who had financial problems and was about to get married and evicted from his apartment, was in custody today accused of a bizarre double murder for money.

Investigators believe the motive in the first murder was money, and the second was to hide his involvement in the first crime.

Wozniak is being held without bail and could face the death penalty if convicted.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Herr's father, Steve Herr, discovered Kibuishi's body in his son's apartment last Saturday night after he was unable to contact his son.

Steve Herr told authorities Kibuishi had been tutoring his son in anthropology.

Kibuishi had been shot in the head, and was partly unclothed, indicating she had been sexually assaulted, leading police to suspect Samuel Herr, who at the time was missing.

Police also found evidence that text messages had been sent from Herr's cellphone to get Kibuishi to his apartment.

On Friday, police announced they had arrested Wozniak for both murders.

Costa Mesa police Sgt. Ed Everett told The Times Wozniak lived three floors below Herr and had recently ended a performance of the musical "Nine' with the Hunger Artists Theatre Company in Fullerton. They said he was to have gotten married Friday at a park in Long Beach, but that he had financial problems, owed money to friends, was behind on his rent and was about to be evicted from his apartment.

Wozniak became a suspect in the murders when he was linked to ATM withdrawals from Herr's bank account.

Police told The Times that on May 21, Wozniak and Herr drove to the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, where Wozniak once performed at the base's theater, and that he shot Herr inside the theater.

He allegedly cut off Herr's, head, left arm and right hand and took the body parts to El Dorado Park in Long Beach, leaving the victim's torso at the base, Glass said.

Investigators believe Wozniak used Herr's cellphone to text Kibuishi, asking her to go to Herr's apartment, where Wozniak shot her and removed some of her clothing in an attempt to make police think Herr killed her.

"It's a very cold, calculating and heinous crime,'' Everett told The Times. "He probably took some time to plan it.''

About a week before the killings, Wozniak was arrested in Costa Mesa on suspicion of DUI and was released on bail a day later.

Steve Herr told the newspaper he believes his son was killed for the $16,000 in his bank account, and that Wozniak confessed to police and told them where his son's remains could be found.

The break in the case came when detectives caught a 17-year-old withdrawing money from Herr's bank account in Long Beach, and the teen said Wozniak had given him the card and asked him to withdraw the money. About $2,000 had been withdrawn from Herr's account.

Wozniak was initially arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to that crime, but after questioning him, they determined he was behind the double murder.

He was charged Friday with two counts of murder with special circumstances of multiple murders, murder for financial gain and the personal discharge of a firearm causing death.

Steve Herr said his son served with the Army's 173rd Airborne and had been in Afghanistan and Germany, getting out of the service last summer.

He had been attending Orange Coast College on the G.I. Bill, with the goal of graduating and re-enlisting in the Army as an officer.

"We're just devastated,'' he told the newspaper. "He's our only boy.''

According to the Orange County Register, which first reported that the head had been found, Kibushi went to Herr's apartment at the Camden Martinique complex at 2855 Pinecreek Drive in Costa Mesa shortly after midnight, where Wozniak allegedly shot her in the head with a shotgun.

Noah David Buffett, 28, of Long Beach, and Wozniak's brother, Timothy Wozniak, were arrested on suspicion of accessory after the fact for allegedly helping dispose of evidence other than the body, Everett told the Register.

The newspaper also reported that after Wozniak was transferred to the Orange County Jail on Thursday, he hurt his head and was taken to Western Medical Center.