CITY NEWS SERVICE
COSTA MESA — The one-time fiancee of a 28-year-old man indicted in connection with the dismemberment murder of a neighbor and the killing of the neighbor’s friend nearly two years ago was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to murder.
Rachel Mae Buffett, 25, of Long Beach was booked Tuesday afternoon and being held on $1 million bail, Costa Mesa police Lt. Paul Dondero said.
Buffett was engaged to marry Daniel Patrick Wozniak when he was arrested and charged with the murders of 26-year-old Samuel Eliezer Herr and 23-year-old Juri Julie Kibuishi of Irvine in May 2010, Dondero said.
Wozniak was indicted for murder and pleaded not guilty in May. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Wozniak’s brother, Timothy Wozniak, 38, was arrested and charged in January for also being an accessory to murder, Dondero said. Timothy Wozniak pleaded not guilty in February and is next due in court Nov. 29.
Daniel Wozniak is next due in court Dec. 14 for a pretrial hearing when a judge will consider motions to suppress evidence and a motion to dismiss the case.
Wozniak was a community theater actor who would perform in a production of “Nine” in Fullerton after each slaying, authorities have alleged.
Wozniak killed Herr at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy has alleged. Then he lured Kibuishi back to Herr’s apartment, fatally shot her and then took off some of her clothes to make it appear Herr killed her, Murphy alleges.
Wozniak then returned to the theater on the military base, where he allegedly dismembered the victim and tried to get rid of the body parts in the El Dorado Park Nature Center in Long Beach, Murphy alleges. Authorities have alleged he was trying to cover up the first crime.
Wozniak was arrested at his bachelor’s party at a Huntington Beach restaurant. Authorities allege he killed Herr to steal his savings and pay for the wedding and honeymoon.
Investigators have been focusing on Buffet for the past two years, and detectives and have questioned her, Dondero said.