Point Reyes Light - November 16, 2000

Woodacre murder victim wasn’t tortured

By Gregory Foley

Autopsies on slain Woodacre resident Selina Bishop and fellow victims Ivan and Annette Stineman have shown that none of the victims was tortured before they were dismembered and dumped in the Sacramento Delta three months ago.

In an autopsy report made public this week, the Sacramento County coroner’s office confirmed earlier statements that Bishop, 22, and the elderly Concord couple all died from "blunt-force trauma" and multiple stabbings.

"There is no conclusive evidence that they were dismembered while alive," county spokeswoman Betsy Braziel told The Light. "Almost all of the evidence points to the fact that they were stabbed and beaten to death before being dismembered... There was no indication of any torture of the victims."

Heart condition

The remains of Bishop and the Stinemans, which were divided into nine duffel bags and dumped in the Mokelumne River, were discovered by Marin and Contra Costa County investigators over a week-long period beginning Aug. 7. Bishop’s boyfriend, Glenn Taylor Helzer, 30, his brother Justin Helzer, 28, and their housemate Dawn Godman, 26, all of Concord, have been accused of committing the murders as part of a gruesome plot to extort $100,000 from the Stinemans.

Several items confiscated from the suspects’ suburban home after their Aug. 7 arrest – including a Tazer stun-gun device and handcuffs – fueled speculation that the victims may have been tortured before their deaths.

The autopsy of Ivan Stineman, which with the others was completed more than a month ago, did reveal that a previously existing heart condition – coupled with the stress of being threatened – likely played a role in his death. "He was stricken with hardening of the arteries, and it appeared there was probably some heart trauma at the time of death," spokeswoman Braziel said.

Time of death unknown

However, the coroner’s report could not establish exactly when or in what order the victims were killed because the recovered body parts were in such poor condition after being in the water for several days. "The time of death is fuzzy," Braziel said. "But with the body parts commingled like they were, it is likely that they were all killed within a fairly short time frame."

The Stinemans were last seen alive in Concord on July 30, when they are believed to have been abducted by the three suspects and forced to write a series of checks that Godman later tried to cash. Selina Bishop was last seen alive in Berkeley on Aug. 2, the day before her mother Jenny Villarin, 45, and her friend James Gamble were shot to death in her Woodacre studio apartment while they were housesitting.

Contra Costa prosecutors charged the trio with all five slayings. The suspects have all pled not guilty to the murder charges and a series of lesser crimes associated with the case, including extortion, robbery, and false imprisonment. They are scheduled to appear Jan. 22 in Contra Costa Superior Court in Martinez for a preliminary hearing.

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