Remains Are Discovered on Property of Sex Offender

In what they called a major break in the disappearance of two college students, including an Irvine woman, San Luis Obispo police said Friday they had found human remains in a remote canyon near the home of a paroled sex offender they term their leading suspect.

Rex Allan Krebs, a local lumberyard worker, has not been charged in the case but remains in custody on an unrelated parole violation, police said in a late-afternoon news conference.

Altogether, three young women, all of them college students, have vanished in the past three years from this tightknit university town 200 miles north of Los Angeles.

The missing students include Irvine native Rachel Newhouse, 20, a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Aundria Crawford, a 20-year-old student at nearby Cuesta College.

“Based on our findings and evidence to date, we believe Rex Krebs is responsible for the deaths of Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford,” said Capt. Bart Topham at the press conference.

The statement marked the first time that authorities have confirmed they believe both missing women are dead.

Topham said police had been investigating Krebs’ relationship to the missing women at least since he was arrested for possession of a BB gun and alcohol March 22.

The student disappearances date back to May 25, 1996, when Kristin Smart, 19, was reported missing. She was last seen outside her Cal Poly dormitory, escorted by a male student after an off-campus party. Authorities stress that Krebs is not a suspect in the Smart disappearance.

On Nov. 12, 1998, Newhouse disappeared while walking home from a fraternity party at a downtown bar. Police say she was assaulted near the downtown train station. Blood matching her type was found on a nearby bridge railing.

Then on March 12, Crawford was abducted from the duplex where she lived alone near downtown San Luis Obispo, police said.

“Up until now, I wasn’t going to give up hope that she was being held against her will,” said Newhouse’s aunt, Stephanie Morreale. Still, she tried to think of her niece as still alive, saying, “She just enjoys life.”

Robert Cunard, who was her student advisor at Irvine High School, called Newhouse “a friend to many people.”

“She had a good heart and [was] just the kind of kid that you’d want your daughter to grow up to be,” he said.

Police on Friday would not indicate whether the remains were male or female and would not say how close to Krebs’ house they were found. But they did say the remains were found on the property where Krebs lives.

Krebs, 33, is a convicted sex offender with a criminal history dating back 15 years.

According to interviews and court records, Krebs was convicted in 1984 and sentenced to a term of up to three years for stealing a car in Lewiston, Idaho.

The small-town Sand Point, Idaho, native was released in April 1986 and finished his parole 11 months later, when he moved to San Luis Obispo.

Within months, Krebs was back in custody for the assaults of two women in separate incidents. He pleaded no contest to charges of rape, forced sodomy, use of a knife and burglary with intent to commit rape and sodomy.

Authorities say that on May 24, 1987, Krebs raped a woman after breaking into her home in Grover Beach, a town 17 miles south of San Luis Obispo.

The following month, according to court records, Krebs broke into the home of a second woman, who was not home.

He returned 10 days later and attacked the woman with a screwdriver. Court records show Krebs severed a tendon in the woman’s hand and left her disabled.

In Krebs’ sentencing for the assaults, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge William R. Fredman said the crime showed a “high degree of viciousness and callousness.”

The judge also raised the specter that Krebs would strike again if he was let out without proper treatment. Fredman suggested that Krebs be sent to an Atascadero State Hospital program for mentally disordered sex offenders.

California Department of Corrections officials said Friday that Krebs never entered the sex offender program but that he did receive psychological treatment after his parole.

Krebs was sentenced to 20 years but was released on parole after serving just half that time, on Sept. 2, 1997, more than a year before Newhouse disappeared, records show.

Art Krebs, the suspect’s uncle, reached in Idaho, said he called the father of Rex Krebs on Friday morning about the developments.

“I called his father and I told him I’ve got some bad news, that they were trying to link Rex to these two girls,” he said. “He ain’t taking this very good. None of us are. Our hearts just go out to those families.”

Krebs said he had not seen his nephew since Rex Krebs moved to California. He said that Rex Krebs’ father had come from Idaho to visit his son in San Luis Obispo about a month ago and had brought home pictures of the two on a fishing trip.

“Rex had this big handlebar mustache and his head was all shaved. I didn’t recognize the kid,” Art Krebs said. “After looking at him for the longest while, I still didn’t see the Rex that I knew.”

San Luis Obispo police said Krebs had lived at several addresses since his 1997 release but had most recently lived in a house in remote Davis Canyon, reachable only by a dirt road.

Neighbors said they frequently saw his blue pickup truck.

On Friday, students said they would never look at the town the same.

“It’s changed how we all live here,” said Majesta Cuizon, 21, a Cuesta College student who attended class with Aundria Crawford.

“There’s a little more of an impact when there’s actually an empty chair and you realize that the girl is gone. I don’t even take the trash out alone anymore at night.”

Juan Gonzalez, Cal Poly vice president of student affairs, said the university is breathing easier.

“This is a time of sadness. but there’s also a tremendous sigh of relief,” he said. “Our hopes and our prayers are that the police will put together a case that is iron-proof.”

Gonzalez said students have planned several marches next week in memory of the missing women. The events include a candlelight vigil and placement of a plaque in the student union.

“Students are saying that we cannot take safety for granted,” he said, “that we must remember these young girls.”

Contributing to this story was Times correspondent Sally Ann Connell.