Woman found in shallow grave identified as Arianna Villareal

UPDATE: Riverside County Coroner has officially identified the victim in a Sky Valley Murder last week as 33 year old Arianna Villareal of Desert Hot Springs.

ORIGINAL STORY: Murder and assault with a deadly weapon charges were filed Tuesday against a Thousand Palms man suspected of killing a woman whose body was found in a shallow grave in Sky Valley last week.

The criminal complaint from the District Attorney against Carl Richard Perdock, 46, includes special circumstances of infliction of torture and murder committed during the course of a kidnapping in the slaying of 33-year-old woman from Desert Hot Springs. The circumstances mean the DA can seek the death penalty.

Perdock appeared in court Tuesday afternoon at the Larson Justice Center in
Indio, but his arraignment was rescheduled to Oct. 16 so that an attorney
from the capital defender’s unit of the Public Defender’s Office can be
appointed to represent him, since the death penalty could be pursued.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge William S. Lebov ordered Perdock
held without bail, which had previously been set at $1 million.

The body was found between 2:30 and 3 a.m. Friday near a residence in the 23000 block of Longvue Road in Sky Valley. She was killed Thursday with a shotgun, according to the criminal complaint. The complaint also states he attacked another man, Brian Arnold with a shotgun.

Sheriff’s Cpl. Angel Ramos said a man called the sheriff’s department
Thursday afternoon to report an assault with a deadly weapon and saying his
roommate was “making threatening statements and was depressed over the break-up with his ex-girlfriend.” Perdock assaulted a man named Brian Arnold with a shotgun that day, according to the complaint.

When they arrived, deputies concluded there had been a possible
struggle, but no one was there. Further investigation led to the residence in
the 23000 block of Longvue, where Perdock fled in a red Jeep Cherokee when he saw deputies, Ramos said.

The deputies gave chase, with a California Highway Patrol helicopter and
K-9 officer joining in the exhaustive pursuit and search that resulted in
Perdock’s detainment about 4:30 p.m., Ramos said.