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Briton accused of family killings arrested in California homeless camp British man accused of killing his family caught at California homeless camp
(about 17 hours later)
A British man suspected of stabbing his wife and mother-in-law to death at a home in California has been found 150 miles away at a coastal homeless camp after a four-day search, according to police. A British man on the run after allegedly killing his wife and mother-in-law in California was found sleeping at a homeless encampment on the coast Wednesday, ending a four-day search for the homicide suspect.
A tip from a homeless person led investigators to a sleeping Dave Thomas McCann, 49, and he was taken into custody on suspicion of killing his wife, Tierney Cooper McCann, 36, and her mother, Judith Cooper, 68. Police in Clovis, a city three hours south-east of San Francisco, said Dave McCann, 47, fled on Saturday after killing his estranged wife Tierney Cooper-McCann, 36, and her mother Judith Cooper, 68, and was discovered in a remote location in the middle of the night based on a tip from a homeless person.
Tierney McCann’s sister, Cortney Rider, said she was at the home in Clovis on Saturday when Dave McCann allegedly kicked down the door and attacked the women, cutting their throats. Rider, who ran out of the house, blamed McCann’s failing marriage and folding business. “Mr McCann went off the grid. There was no technology to be used. There was no cellphones. There was no ATM transactions or anything else to use,” Clovis police chief Matt Basgall said at a press conference, adding that police found the suspect sleeping “well off the beaten path, up a bicycle trail and behind a fence”.
Police allege McCann kicked down the door and carried out the stabbings before driving a removal truck toward the coast, then abandoning it two hours away in the city of Paso Robles. From there he may have ridden his bicycle and hitched rides north to the coastal town of Seaside, investigators said. The man was arrested in Seaside, a coastal city 160 miles west of Clovis, where police say he had fatally stabbed the two women early Saturday morning inside a home before fleeing in a Penske truck that he later abandoned.
McCann did not use a mobile phone or withdraw money from an ATM, which could have pinpointed his location, Clovis police chief Matt Basgall said at a news conference in Seaside after the arrest. “This is a case where Mr McCann went off the grid,” Basgall said. Double homicide suspect Dave McCann being prepared for transport from #SeasidePD to #ClovisPD at 6am this morning. pic.twitter.com/gQH1gG4Opw
A break in the search came when a homeless person tipped off investigators to McCann’s whereabouts. Officers found McCann asleep at the homeless camp, Basgall said. Cortney Cooper Rider, the sister of Cooper-McCann, survived the attack, telling local news station KFSN-TV that her brother-in-law banged on the door and eventually kicked it in before slitting the throats of her mother and sister.
A day before the killings McCann had gone to the Clovis police department and asked an officer to accompany him to the home to collect some of his personal belongings, which happened without incident, said police spokeswoman Janet Stoll-Lee. “I went in and grabbed the phone and was getting ready to call 911 and by the time I walked out he was slitting her throat,” she said. “He looked at me and said, ‘You’re next’, and I immediately ran out the front door and ran to the next-door neighbors.”
McCann was a British citizen living in the US on a green card, she said. She did not know what country he was from or whether he had an attorney yet to comment on his behalf. Rider told the station she was able to escape.
“My mom was hiding in the bedroom, having it locked. And he busted down the door after not being able to catch me. He went back to the house, he slit my mom’s throat in the back bedroom.”
McCann’s LinkedIn profile says he works in energy and property consultancy and lists him as CEO of SOS Energy and Property Solutions. A website for the company now says, “Due to circumstances beyond our control, this company is closing. Our prayers are dedicated to the Cooper Family.”
Basgall said a team of detectives investigated reports of several potential sightings of the suspect before they were able to track him down.
“The way this case was made was just by old-fashioned police work and getting out there and talking to people and then the citizens providing those tips.”
#UPDATE 5/10/16 - 6AM- Double Homicide Suspect Dave McCann is in custody in Seaside. pic.twitter.com/UJWy1nC0jP
Asked for the family’s reaction upon learning of the arrest, Basgall said, “They were very happy that he’s in custody. However, they’re very much still grieving.”