Anaheim : Police Seek Third Suspect in Murder of Couple

Police Monday were seeking a possible third suspect for questioning in the apparently drug-related slayings of a man and a woman whose decomposed bodies were discovered over the weekend in a Terrace Street apartment.

The person being sought is believed to have been “involved” with two men arrested Sunday on suspicion of murdering Ricardo Van Stubbs, 26, and his girlfriend, Suzanne Elizabeth Rivera, 23, according to Lt. Mark Hedgepeth. He declined to elaborate on the identity or relationship of the person being sought but said the person apparently was not there during the murder.

The two suspects arrested Sunday, John Roger Jordan, 26, of Riverside and Charles Oscar Sabbeth, 25, of Orange, were being held without bond. Both are scheduled to be arraigned today. Evidence found at the scene of the killings links at least one of the suspects to the crime, Hedgepeth said. The victims “knew one and quite possibly both” Jordan and Sabbeth, he said. He declined to elaborate.

Stubbs and Rivera were discovered lying face down in the bedroom of their apartment in the 2500 block of Terrace Street late Saturday. Stubbs died of a single gunshot wound, while Rivera had multiple wounds, according to an autopsy.

The apartment had been ransacked, but there was no sign of a struggle, Hedgepeth said. Signs of drug use were found in the apartment, he said, and police “have indications that the shootings were drug-related.”

The couple were last seen alive nine days ago and are believed to have been killed a short time later.