Suspect in 1981 Van Nuys Killing Arrested

Led by a tip to a Santa Cruz Mountains canyon so remote that locals call it “the belly of the beast,” authorities have arrested a 42-year-old man in connection with the 1981 killing of a fellow motorcycle gang member in Van Nuys, Los Angeles police said Friday.

Arthur La Vern Schlosser eluded detectives for more than a decade by using two aliases, hiding in a cabin two miles from the nearest town, and living off the land, said police and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department.

This week, as he met his son at a rural school bus stop, Schlosser was arrested by deputies who had been watching him for several weeks--ever since two Van Nuys detectives learned of his hide-out through an informant, said Van Nuys Chief Homicide Detective Stephen Fisk.

Sporting a large tattoo of Adolf Hitler on his back, Schlosser was taken into custody at gunpoint without incident, said Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Deputy Kim A. Allyn.

He has been returned to Los Angeles County and charged with the June 2, 1981, murder of Michael Henry, 26, who was shot during a dispute, Fisk said.

Henry was actually shot by Van Nuys resident Timothy Elby, then 24, as he defended himself against Henry and Schlosser, Fisk said. Henry and Schlosser, who belonged to a bikers’ gang called the Crucifiers, had gone to Elby’s home on Decelis Place to beat him because Elby had given Henry’s ex-girlfriend a ride on his motorcycle.

Fisk said Elby was never charged in the case because the shooting was considered self-defense. But Schlosser, formerly of Sunland, disappeared. Detectives now believe he settled near the town of Felton in the Santa Cruz Mountains shortly after the killing.

Although Schlosser did not directly cause his companion’s death, he can be held responsible under California law because it occurred while they committed a crime in which the victim feared for his life, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Leonard J. Shaffer. The men also provoked Elby into defending himself, he said.

Shaffer, who handled the case in 1981, said Schlosser’s disappearance didn’t exactly haunt him all these years. “I’ve had too many matters between then and now,” he said. Since his arrest Tuesday, Schlosser also has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and grand theft of an auto in unrelated cases, Fisk said. He is being held without bail in the Los Angeles County Jail.

Fisk credited Van Nuys Detectives Philip Morritt and Angel Lopez with “good, hard detective work,” saying they got their break pretty quickly after revisiting the case in October. The original detectives on the case retired several years ago, he said.

“We never close the book on a murder case,” Fisk said. “Whenever we have extra time, we go back and try to pursue old leads and find new ones. So Morritt and Lopez took this old case and started talking to some people and found out the guy had moved to Santa Cruz County.”

There, Schlosser used the names Bruce Edward Parker and Glenn Stephen Hopper, and rarely left his canyon retreat, said Allyn, who lives in the area and had noticed Schlosser before. Fisk said Schlosser’s wife helped support the family by working for a local contractor.

“He looked like a crook,” Allyn said, adding that Schlosser changed his appearance several times. A skinny 6 feet, 2 inches tall, the bearded Schlosser sometimes shaved his head to appear bald and sometimes wore his hair long, Allyn recalled.

Fisk said Schlosser was not arrested immediately after he was found because from his isolated cabin he could have spotted authorities approaching from miles away.