Three Montana residents have been arrested in the double homicide of a husband and wife from Burbank found dead by a snowplow driver on a remote Eastern Sierra highway late last year, officials said Thursday.
The suspects are former businesses associates of deceased 35-year-old William Larsen and his wife, Yesenia Larsen, 30, according to the Mono County Sheriff’s Office.
Those arrested, all three residents of Missoula, Montana, were identified as Bradley Kohorst, 35; Cory Spurlock, 33; and Orit Oged, 32.
The Larsens’ bodies were discovered by a snowplow driver working for Caltrans on Highway 395 early in the morning of Nov. 9, after the area’s first major snowfall of the season.
The couple was found on the highway’s shoulder about 10 miles north of Bridgeport, not far from the Nevada border, where officials say they had no known connection. The location is about a six-hour drive from Los Angeles.
Authorities have yet to release a cause of death for the pair. It’s still unclear whether the Larsens died by the highway or if their bodies were dumped there.
Other than describing the suspects as former business associates of the couple’s, investigators did not give any indication of a motive in the killings. It’s also unclear what evidence they have tying the three suspects to the crime.
However, enough evidence was compiled for the Mono County District Attorney’s Office to issue arrest warrants in the case, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Kohorst was tracked down and taken into custody Monday in Phoenix, Arizona, while the other two suspects were arrested Thursday in Missoula, authorities said.
Upon serving a search warrant in Missoula Thursday, investigators uncovered several semiautomatic handguns and rifles, ammunition, and cash, according to the California Department of Justice, which assisted in the probe.
The three were still awaiting extradition to California as of Thursday. They are expected to be arraigned on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit a crime, state officials said.
The Sheriff’s Office described the investigation as complex and said every member of the department had a role in solving the crime. They also enlisted the help of 19 other local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.