Stafford Joel Spicer Arrested on Suspicion of Slaying Long Beach Model in 1985

Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department

​A homicide case may finally be closed--oh, just 26 years after the crime, but who's counting?
 
Stafford Joel Spicer, 59, of Las Vegas was arrested Tuesday and booked on suspicion of murdering his girlfriend Joanne Marie Jones in 1985.

Jones, a model from Long Beach, was 23 when she disappeared on April 29, 1985, according to a statement from Los Angeles County sheriff's officials. Her body was found two months later in a remote area of Azusa Canyon east of Highway 39. She had been stabbed to death.

Days after she went missing, Spicer was found driving Jones' 1978 Chevrolet Camaro and arrested. But he was released, as there was "insufficient evidence" to pursue murder charges, the statement said.

The case was reopened in 2009 by Sheriff's Homicide Cold Case Detective Steve Davis, who  uncovered DNA evidence. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office then determined there was sufficient evidence for homicide charges to be filed.

Spicer, 59 and jobless, was served with an arrest warrant at his Las Vegas home.