In what they called a major break in the disappearance of two college students, including an Irvine woman, San Luis Obispo police said Friday they had found human remains in a remote canyon near the home of a paroled sex offender they term their leading suspect.
Rex Allan Krebs, a local lumberyard worker, has not been charged in the case but remains in custody on an unrelated parole violation, police said in a late-afternoon news conference.
Altogether, three young women, all of them college students, have vanished in the past three years from this tightknit university town 200 miles north of Los Angeles.
The missing students include Irvine native Rachel Newhouse, 20, a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Aundria Crawford, a 20-year-old student at nearby Cuesta College.
"Based on our findings and evidence to date, we believe Rex Krebs is responsible for the deaths of Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford," said Capt. Bart Topham at the press conference.
The statement marked the first time that authorities have confirmed they believe both missing women are dead.
Topham said police had been investigating Krebs' relationship to the missing women at least since he was arrested for possession of a BB gun and alcohol March 22.
The student disappearances date back to May 25, 1996, when Kristin Smart, 19, was reported missing. She was last seen outside her Cal Poly dormitory, escorted by a male student after an off-campus party. Authorities stress that Krebs is not a suspect in the Smart disappearance.
On Nov. 12, 1998, Newhouse disappeared while walking home from a fraternity party at a downtown bar. Police say she was assaulted near the downtown train station. Blood matching her type was found on a nearby bridge railing.
Then on March 12, Crawford was abducted from the duplex where she lived alone near downtown San Luis Obispo, police said.
"Up until now, I wasn't going to give up hope that she was being held against her will," said Newhouse's aunt, Stephanie Morreale. Still, she tried to think of her niece as still alive, saying, "She just enjoys life."
Robert Cunard, who was her student advisor at Irvine High School, called Newhouse "a friend to many people."
"She had a good heart and [was] just the kind of kid that you'd want your daughter to grow up to be," he said.
Police on Friday would not indicate whether the remains were male or female and would not say how close to Krebs' house they were found. But they did say the remains were found on the property where Krebs lives.
