The police have arrested a third man in connection with the gruesome murder of an Indian-American man and his daughter in southern California and the brutal assault on his wife, officials said on Friday.
Charles Anthony Murphy Jr, 22, was taken into custody at his workplace in Irvine and is being held without bail at Anaheim's detention facility on suspicion of murder.
The police had found the mini van they think was used in the slayings. "We have got some link from the vehicle," police officer Lt. Chuck O'Connor said.
Last week, two suspects in the killings Iftekhar Murtaza, 22, and Vitaliy Krasnoperov, 21, each pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges.
The men are charged with the murders of Jayprakash Dhanak, 56, and his 20-year-old daughter, Karishma Dhanak, whose charred bodies were found on May 22 after firefighters put out a blaze along a bike trail.
The previous night, Leela Dhanak, 53, was found beaten outside the family's burning home in Anaheim Hills. Just before the slayings, Shayona Dhanak, Karishma's sister, had broken off her three-year relationship with Murtaza. Allegations could make both men subject to the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
The arrest warrant for Murtaza suggested that a clash of religions led to his break-up with Shayona, who was in college dormitory when her family was attacked.
Authorities described Murphy as Murtaza's friend. Records show that Murtaza's cellphone had been used near one of the crime scenes an hour or so before the slayings, though Murtaza told authorities he wasn't in Anaheim on the day of the house fire.
Soon after police interviewed him, Murtaza left for Arizona, where he was arrested on a fugitive warrant at an airport. Court documents said he was carrying a one-way ticket to Bangladesh, but his attorney said it was a round-trip and that Murtaza had planned to visit his ailing grandmother.
In June, authorities took Murtaza's friend Krasnoperov into custody while he was visiting friends in the Phoenix area.
Krasnoperov worked at Murtaza's loan company. Krasnoperov told friends that during the crime, he was recovering from a motorcycle accident in which he broke his right wrist in three places.
