Neighbor busted in nudist ranch raid after ‘murdering missing elderly couple’
A man was arrested under his home at a nudist ranch he shared with a missing elderly couple – in connection with their presumed murder.
Michael Royce Sparks, 62, surrendered voluntarily after police used an armored vehicle and hydraulic battering ram to tear down his home in Redlands, California, KABC reported.
A SWAT team descended on the Olive Dell Ranch nudist resort on Thursday night, five days after Stephanie Menard, 73, and her husband Daniel Menard, 79, were last seen there.
‘I won’t say he’s been cooperative, but he did surrender voluntarily last night after lengthy negotiations,’ said Redlands Police Department spokesman Carl Baker on Friday.
The Menards and their white Shih Tzu, Cuddles, mysteriously vanished from their home on the 26000 block of Keissel Road sometime after last Saturday morning.
Their vehicle was found unlocked down the road, while Stephanie’s purse and her and her husband’s phones were inside their home.
The couple are believed to be dead, Baker said.
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department cadaver dogs sniffed the property on Friday morning. One of the dogs found a body under the home close to where Sparks was taken into custody, officials said.
‘We don’t know we’ve located their bodies,’ Baker said. ‘We located human remains. I can’t verify that that’s Dan and Stephanie.’
The motive for the possible killings was not immediately known.
‘He did have a rifle and he did attempt to kill himself when police discovered him, but the rifle misfired,’ Baker said of Sparks.
Sparks has been charged with murder in connection with the couple vanishing. He has been booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
Other neighbors and friends said the Menards were very active at the nudist resort and at their church.
‘I just want them back,’ Sandy Marinelli, who has known the Menards over a decade, told KCAL News.
‘They don’t deserve this… They’re just good people. They go to church. They don’t deserve any of this.’
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