Twentynine Palms Marine & woman arrested in boyfriend’s murder
Update – 8/30:
Krueger and Stapp have been released after prosecutors declined to file murder charges. Both have been released from jail.
Riverside County District Attorney’s Office spokesman John Hall said the case is “under review” but no criminal complaint was pending.
Detectives are continuing work on re-submitting their case to the D.A.’s office.
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Original Story 8/30:
A 30-year-old U.S. Marine and his girlfriend are accused of killing a Murrieta man the girlfriend was also dating. The man’s remains were found on June 2 in a shallow grave at Joshua Tree National Park.
Curtis Lee Krueger of Twentynine Palms and Ashlie Stapp, 27. of Joshua Tree were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murder and conspiracy. They are each being held today on $1 million bails.
Krueger was booked into the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, while Stapp was booked into the Indio Jail.
According to Murrieta police Lt. Mark Reid, the pair is suspected of killing 54-year-old Henry Stange earlier this year.
Reid said that detectives had been working to develop leads in the case since the victim’s remains were located on June 2 in a shallow grave on the San Bernardino County side of the park.
Stange’s body was discovered by a park ranger in the area of Big Horn Pass Road and Park Boulevard, Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Ben Ramirez said. The area is about six miles south of Twentynine Palms. A visitor alerted park rangers to what appeared to be partially buried human remains in a nondescript area, George Land of the National Park Service told KESQ & CBS Local 2.
According to Stange’s sister, he was a ham radio operator and was dating Stapp.
Stange resided in the 24000 block of New Clay Street, near Kalmia Street. Investigators did not specify when he went missing, or whether he was killed at his home.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s personnel coordinated with Murrieta police during the investigation.
Krueger was arrested by deputies near the south entrance to the Marine Corps’ Twenty-Nine Palms Air-Ground Combat Center. Stapp was taken into custody on the campus of Copper Mountain Community College in Joshua Tree.
Marine Lt. Adam Miller told City News Service that Krueger enlisted in April 2005, beginning his career as a private, and continued up through the non-commissioned ranks until he qualified for officer candidate school. He earned his lieutenant’s bars in 2015 and has been stationed since June 2017 at
the Twentynine Palms base, where he is a communications officer assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 7, Combat Logistics Regiment 1.
Neither Krueger nor Stapp has documented prior felony convictions.
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