Pathologist reveals autopsy findings in Pinyon Pines killings
Photographed remains of a Pinyon Pines family whose lives were allegedly taken by two young men more than a decade ago were displayed today to a hushed courtroom in Riverside, where a pathologist
detailed how the three died and why their bodies were left unrecognizable.
Riverside County Chief Pathologist Mark Fajardo was called by the prosecution in the trial of Robert Lars Pape and Cristin Conrad Smith to render his opinion based on findings of autopsies conducted in September 2006, a few days after the murders of 18-year-old Becky Friedli, her mother, 53-year-old Vicki Friedli, and the latter’s boyfriend, 55-year-old Jon Hayward.
“The left side of her body is missing,” Fajardo said while examining a post-mortem photo of Becky Friedli. “She was set afire.”
The medical examiner acknowledged that coroner’s officials could not ascertain the exact cause of the young woman’s death due to the severity of thermal damage that contorted her body into a charred clump.
“She suffered `homicidal violence’ — death at the hands of another,” Fajardo testified.
According to the witness, most of the young woman’s extremities were burned off, and autopsy photos revealed nothing in the way of identifiable features. However, pathologists were able to find a bullet entrance wound to the right side of her head and a projectile lodged in the left side, Fajardo
said.
It was determined she died from the shooting, not the fire, as did Hayward, who’s remains were also severely burned, resulting in parts missing. But despite the intensity of the blaze, the autopsy led to the recovery of wadding from a shotgun shell embedded in the victim’s chest.
According to Farjardo, shotgun pellets had diffused in the chest cavity, a few reaching Hayward’s heart.
“He was likely shot twice, with two separate rounds,” the medical examiner said.
As the photos were shown on an overhead projector for the jury, Smith repeatedly turned his head to the side, presumably to avoid seeing them. Pape did not cast his eyes elsewhere.
The men, both 29, are charged with three counts of first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of taking multiple lives. Both face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.
Deputy District Attorney Brandon Smith, who’s prosecuting the case alongside Assistant District Attorney John Aki, said Monday that it had “taken 12 years of patience and persistence to reveal the truth” of what transpired the night of Sept. 17, 2006.
Smith offered no theory as to a motive for the killings, referring only to the yearlong romantic relationship between Becky Friedli and Pape, which ended in a breakup in the winter of 2006.
According to prosecutors, Pape and Friedli resumed communicating on Sept. 14, 2006, when the defendant called the victim to suggest they take a night hike near her home.
Smith noted that the defendant told sheriff’s investigators that Friedli was the one who reached out first — even though her best friend, Javier Garcia, countered that he was present when Pape contacted her to request a rendezvous.
Phone logs indicated that the victim and Pape were in touch until 7:30 that fateful night.
The victims’ residence was described as remote, 180 yards off of Alpine Drive, surrounded largely by desert scrub.
A neighbor spotted flames about 9:30 p.m. at the residence and went to investigate, at which point he saw a fire spreading inside the single-story house. The badly charred remains of Becky Friedli were found in a wheelbarrow nearby.The victims’ house was consumed by flames. Vicki Friedli’s and
Hayward’s remains were discovered in the kitchen the next day.
According to prosecutors, the wheelbarrow had been rolled to the rear of the residence, where investigators found two different sets of footprints, as well as a business card from Catholic Pro-Life Ministries.
Deputy D.A. Smith said the card was eventually processed and checked for DNA trace evidence, and the results of the analysis, produced several years later, showed two of Cristin Smith’s fingers had touched the card, and the probability of anyone other than him being a “major donor” of the DNA was 1 in 28 trillion.
The defendants were interviewed by detectives within two weeks of the murders, and according to the prosecution, the men’s accounts differed regarding where they had been and when that night. When an investigator first questioned Pape about what he knew of the circumstances, the then-18-year-old
proceeded to identify crime scene elements — notably the flaming wheelbarrow — not publicly disclosed, investigators said.
The defendants were first charged in 2014, but after grand jury proceedings foundered, the case was shelved. However, after investigators interviewed Pape’s and Smith’s former co-worker — Jeremy Witt — in 2016, the pair were re-arrested and charged.
Witt told detectives that while conversing with Cristin Smith a few weeks after the killings, the defendant admitted being at the scene and that plans and gone awry, prompting him and Pape to “torch the whole (expletive) place,” the prosecutor alleged.
Cristin Smith’s attorney, John Dolan, condemned the DNA evidence as not credible and said Witt was only interested in a $50,000 reward that had been offered for information leading to a conviction in the case.
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