A Kona woman is in jail in Oregon under allegations she participated in the murder of two people near San Francisco.
Lila Scott Alligood, 18, formerly of Kailua-Kona, is in custody, along with her alleged co-conspirators Morrison Haze Lampley, 23, and Sean Michael Angold, 24.
It’s not clear when or why she moved from the island.
She attended Honokaa Elementary and High schools.
The two victims are a Canadian student on a backpacking vacation and a San Francisco tantric yoga instructor.
Police allege the three suspects stole a handgun from an unlocked car parked in the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood. The theft was reported on Oct. 1.
“We believe the same weapon was used in both crimes,” Chaplin said, adding that it appears robbery was the motive in the two killings.
The body of Audrey Carey, 23, was found Oct. 3 in Golden Gate Park. She had been shot in the head.
Yoga instructor Steve Carter, 67, was discovered dead on Monday near a popular hiking trail in Marin County across the Golden Gate Bridge. He had been shot multiple times while walking his dog, which was shot in the head, but survived.
The suspects were being held without bail in Oregon, and it was unclear if any of them are represented by a lawyer.
They were arrested Wednesday at a soup kitchen in Portland, Ore. San Francisco police say the stolen gun was recovered during the arrest, and they believe it’s the weapon used to fatally shoot Carey and Carter.
San Francisco police also said the suspects had Carter’s car, and some of Carey’s camping gear was found inside it.
Valerie Chapman, administrator of St. Francis Church in Portland, told the AP she had to admonish the three for smoking in a no-smoking area just outside the dining hall. Some of the regular diners told her the three suspects were asking if anyone wanted to buy a Volkswagen Jetta station wagon, Chapman said.
“We serve low-income and homeless people, many of them with mental illness,” Chapman said. “It’s not the smartest place to sell a car.”
The suspects waived extradition proceedings in Portland and will be returned to the San Francisco Bay Area to face charges in the shooting deaths, Marin County sheriff’s Lt. Doug Pittman said. He declined to say how they will be transported but said they will not return this weekend.
“They can’t go anywhere until we come get them,” he said.
He has described the suspects as drifters and said none of them has a known address.
SFGate sent reporters to Haight Street, a longtime locus for drifters on the West Coast.
“They were always in here to buy sandwiches, and they could be trouble,” said Mike Kazzouh, one of the owners of the Cedar Deli and Market. “The girl, she asked for water once without buying anything and when I told her no she called me a lot of bad names. Very loudly.”
One of the other drifters said the three were using meth, SFGate reported.
Investigators are trying to piece together how the trio and the homicide victims met up. They’re also trying to determine how long the suspects had been in San Francisco and how they got to Marin County.
Carey had left her native Quebec and was on a solo backpacking trip when she was killed after the first day of a music festival in Golden Gate Park. Her body was found near the site where the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is held each year on six stages spread throughout the park.
Tens of thousands of fans stream into the park each year to watch the free music performed by dozens of bands over three days.
It’s unclear if the suspects or Carey attended the festival because there are no tickets to the free event, San Francisco police spokesman Albie Esparza said. Investigators believe Carey may have camped in the park.
A hiker found Carter’s body Monday evening, and he was still holding the leash of his wounded dog. The Doberman pinscher was turned over to the Marin County Humane Society and is expected to recover.
Followers credited Carter with improving their romantic relationships by teaching tantra, a philosophy of meditation, yoga and sexuality famously embraced by rock star Sting.
Records show Portland police arrested Lampley on suspicion of possessing a weapon in a park in 2010 and graffiti-related crimes in 2012. He was sentenced to time served in the weapons case and never showed up in court for the graffiti charge, the records state.
In 2012, he pleaded no contest to carrying a concealed 5-inch knife in Mountain View, Calif., the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
In May, he was charged in San Diego County with the unlawful selling or receiving of a stolen vehicle, a felony, and with stealing a dog, a misdemeanor, the newspaper said. He pleaded guilty to the felony charge and was sentenced to time that he had already served.
San Francisco detectives spotted similarities in the shooting deaths of Carey and Carter, including the locations in wooded areas. The agency collaborated with Marin County, which traced the three suspects to Portland using the navigation system in Carter’s car.
Graham Milldrum contributed to this story.