Police Seek Speedy Extradition in Slaying

MISSOULA, Mont. — Anaheim police will press for the speedy extradition of David Lee Schoenecker, suspected of murdering his wife, after a Montana court hearing scheduled for today, a detective said Sunday.

Schoenecker, 48, of Anaheim Hills, is due to appear in Montana’s 4th Judicial Court. At the hearing, Schoenecker may ask for a court-appointed lawyer and will signal whether he intends to fight extradition to California, Anaheim Police Sgt. Chet Barry said.

Barry, who flew to Montana last weekend with two other Anaheim detectives, said that if Schoenecker agrees to waive extradition, they will try to return him to Orange County the same day.

If Schoenecker does not agree, Barry will return to California to obtain an extradition warrant. The warrant, Barry said, could take anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days to get, after which “we would just come back up and take him. We will seek to get him extradited as soon as possible.”

Schoenecker, who was arrested in Montana on Friday in the shooting death of his wife, Gail, 40, earlier refused to sign an extradition waiver.

Hopes He Reconsiders

“We’re hoping tomorrow to give him an opportunity to talk to counsel and reconsider whether he will sign an extradition waiver,” Barry said.

Schoenecker, a chemical engineer, faces charges in Orange County of murdering his wife, an elementary school teacher, at their home May 5. Her body was discovered Thursday after Schoenecker mailed a letter to a newspaper columnist saying he had killed her.

Schoenecker said in the same letter that he planned to “punish” 54 acquaintances and relatives named on a list he left near his wife’s body. Most live in Schoenecker’s native Wisconsin, although Sgt. Barry said one name was of a man who supposedly lives in Montana, near Missoula.

Detectives had contacted a person with that name but were told by the man that he had never heard of Schoenecker, Barry said. Barry said it was not known whether the list referred to someone else.

Schoenecker was arrested Friday after an intensive search through the wilds of the Bitterroot mountain range near the boundary between Idaho and Montana. Authorities said that he had planned to “disappear” in the wilderness of Idaho, where he was headed at the time of his capture.

The fugitive was ordered held in custody on $500,000 bail. He was detained until Saturday in the Mineral County Jail in Superior, Mont. He had been tracked down by Mineral County Sheriff Wade VanGilder and his posse.

More Secure Jail

On Saturday afternoon, he was transferred to the Missoula County Jail in Missoula, in part because it has a more secure facility, VanGilder said.

The Mineral County Jail, with a prisoner holding capacity of 12, is a minimum-security structure from which inmates have escaped by kicking away loose mortar and brick, VanGilder and other Mineral County residents said. The Missoula County Jail, on the fourth floor of the Missoula County courthouse, is a maximum-security facility with room for 88 inmates.

Barry said the transfer will also make court appearances more convenient. There is no state court in Superior, and there are no available lawyers in the tiny logging town to represent Schoenecker.

Anaheim Detective Dave Tuttle, who along with Detective Joe Reiss is with Barry in Montana, said Schoenecker initially requested a California lawyer but indicated to detectives Saturday that he was considering retaining a local lawyer.

During the 1 1/2-hour session with Detectives Tuttle and Reiss, Schoenecker invoked his rights and declined to discuss details of the case until he had access to a lawyer, Barry said. The suspect, wearing reading glasses and an orange jumpsuit that day, was otherwise pleasant, Barry said.

“He’s easygoing and cooperative,” Barry said.

The Anaheim detectives on Sunday concentrated their efforts on taking photographs and questioning witnesses for their case against Schoenecker, Barry said. They traveled Cedar Creek Road, in the lushly forested mountains above Superior, to examine the scene where Schoenecker had abandoned his late-model car and trudged ahead on foot over a snowy pass leading into Idaho. The car had a flat tire and the Hoodoo Pass was impassable, authorities said.

The detectives also questioned people living in a number of cabins along Cedar Creek Road who reported seeing the fugitive hiking in the area Friday morning, Barry said. Later this week, the detectives will use a search warrant to inspect the suspect’s car, which remained impounded Sunday by the Mineral County Sheriff’s Department.

Schoenecker’s heavily laden backpack, which has also been impounded as evidence, will be sealed, Barry said. Schoenecker was overheard telling a newspaper columnist Saturday that the pack contained such supplies as a sleeping bag, tent, canned food, fruits and water.

Barry added that a .357 magnum revolver found concealed in Schoenecker’s pack would also be taken back to California. A ballistics test will be performed to determine whether the gun is the same from which a bullet was fired into the head of Schoenecker’s wife. Police said that bullet was from a .357 magnum.

Barry said the Anaheim detectives hope to return to Orange County by Tuesday.

“The thing we’re doing is tying up loose ends,” he said.