LONG BEACH — Police searching a Southern California park have found the severed head of a man who they believe was killed in a bizarre double murder-for-profit plot in Orange County.
A search team of the FBI and the Long Beach and Costa Mesa police departments found a human head that likely belongs to Samuel Eliezer Herr, 26, about noon Saturday in the El Dorado Park’s nature preserve area near the El Dorado Nature Center, said Costa Mesa police Sgt. Patrick Wessel.
On Friday, they found Herr’s severed right hand and arm in the park about half a mile apart. Wessel said authorities have now called off the search. “We believe everything has been recovered at this point,” he said. Daniel Patrick Wozniak, 26, a Costa Mesa actor, has been charged with two counts of murder for allegedly killing and dismembering Herr, his neighbor, and then luring Herr’s friend, 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 is being held without bail and could face the death penalty if convicted. Authorities said Wozniak allegedly tried to kill himself while in custody on Thursday and was treated for a head wound. On May 21, police said Wozniak lured Herr to the theater in the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, where he shot and killed him and cut off his head, left arm and right hand. Police said he took the body parts to El Dorado Park and hid Herr’s torso in the theater.
Wozniak then allegedly shot Kibuishi after summoning her to Herr’s apartment with a text message from Herr’s phone. Her body was found on May 22 when Herr’s father went to the apartment to check on his son. Herr was at first a suspect in Kibuishi’s slaying. But the investigation changed course when detectives learned that ATM withdrawals were being made with Herr’s ATM card at various locations in Long Beach.
Police detained a 17-year-old boy after he withdrew nearly $2,000 from Herr’s bank account. The teenager told police he was making the withdrawals for Wozniak.
Wozniak was arrested in connection with the case on Wednesday. A stage actor who had recently ended a performance of the musical “Nine” with the Hunger Artists Theatre Company in Fullerton, Wozniak reportedly had financial problems, owed people money and was about to be evicted from his apartment.
Authorities said he was supposed to be married in a Long Beach park Friday, the day he was charged with the murders. Herr’s father, Steve Herr, told the Los Angeles Times he believes his son was killed for the $16,000 in his bank account.
Steve Herr said his son, an only child, 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.
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