PUBLIC SAFETY
DNA evidence reopens 1984 murder case; suspect arrested
A Canadian citizen charged last week with a 1984 Huntington Beach homicide was deported just six weeks ago after serving time in a California state prison for a 1986 sexual assault in Costa Mesa.
The suspect, Gerald Su Go, 51, has been charged with the murder of Elizabeth May Hoffschneider while committing rape, burglary and robbery, district attorneys said.
Toronto authorities arrested Go last week in connection with the 1984 murder. DNA evidence linking him to the crime helped district prosecutors file charges on the cold case, but only after Go was deported.
If convicted of this crime he faces a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Go was convicted in 2004 for the 1986 crime, which happened in a Costa Mesa apartment complex where he lived at the time.
A Los Angeles Times story in 1984 reported that Hoffschneider, 38 at the time, was found strangled on her bed in the 16200 block of Parkside Lane, where she lived alone, after she went missing from her job in Fountain Valley.
The Toronto police fugitive squad arrested Go Oct. 23. He is scheduled for extradition proceedings in Canada to bring him to Orange County for prosecution.
Local Community Emergency Response Teams returned home from assisting fire crews this week as the Orange County blaze came under full containment and safety crews headed back to their cities.
Local volunteers worked relaying messages between agencies, making meals and shuttling supplies and people around Irvine Regional Park in Orange. Some of the aides helped drive Orange County Fire Authority investigators to some of the charred neighborhoods for damage assessment.
The final engines from Newport Beach and Costa Mesa fire departments returned to their stations Monday morning from the Witch fire in the San Diego area after breaking off from the group fighting the Santiago Canyon fire in Orange County last week.
Only two members of the Newport Beach Fire Department stayed behind Monday to assist in containing the blaze. Costa Mesa had dispatched four engines; Newport Beach had sent three.
Los Angeles FBI agents confirmed Wednesday that they believe the robber of the First Bank in Costa Mesa this week to be the Armada Bandit, a man wanted in connection with six similar robberies countywide, authorities said.
