Ex-Husband Charged With Realtor's 2004 Murder

SAN DIEGO -- The ex-husband of a Los Angeles-area real estate agent whose body was found in the trunk of her Mercedes, which had been abandoned in San Diego, was charged Friday with murdering her.

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BODY FOUND IN TRUNK Gruesome Discovery Found In Car

Erwin Percy Howard, 51, of El Segundo, is accused of the July 2004 slaying of Julia "Deede" Keller.

The 54-year-old grandmother's body was found wrapped in a blanket in the trunk of her 1999 Mercedes-Benz E320 in the 1000 block of 11th Avenue in San Diego last July 15, four days after she was reported missing from her El Segundo home.

Armed with a search and arrest warrant, authorities arrested her second husband without incident Thursday.

Howard remained jailed on $1 million bail, pending a scheduled arraignment Monday in Los Angeles, said John Lewin, Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.

"We're not going to talk about a whole lot of particulars of the case -- motive, cause of death, things of that nature obviously are things that are going to come out during the trial," Capt. Ray Peavy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Bureau said during a morning news briefing in El Segundo.

"We have established (a motive), but we're not going to share at this time," Peavy said.

"Well, we obviously believe that she died at the hands of her ex-husband. We believe that her body was obviously transported to San Diego, where it was left in the car that it was found in," he said.

"At this point we're relatively sure, in fact, we are sure that this all began at her home," Peavy added. "Now, exactly where she took her last breath, we're not going to wet into any of those details."

He declined to say what problems the couple might have been having before she died.

"Obviously, there were some problems, it goes without saying, but as far as elaborating on those problems, I can't," Peavy said.

The District Attorney's Office, which was working closely with detectives, had asked them not to reveal how the woman died, Peavy said.

Keller was last seen alive the night of July 8 at her El Segundo home in the 500 block of Richmond Street after being dropped off by a date.

Howard, who left the country around the time Keller was reported missing, told reporters on his return that he had gone to Bolivia to care for his ailing mother, who had fallen and hurt her arm and back.

Detectives who questioned Howard when he returned to Los Angeles International Airport, called him a "person of interest" and subsequently searched his home and took a DNA sample from him.

"We attempted to eliminate this suspect, but were never able to," Peavy said. "In fact, the more we looked at him, the more it became apparent to us that he was, in fact, the killer."

Before being arrested, Howard had repeatedly denied any involvement in his ex-wife's death.

"Every day it's a nightmare," Howard said in one interview. "This is nothing but a horrible nightmare."

"If I had anything to do with it, I would have fled the country and got lost there," he told the Daily Breeze in late July. "I came back. I chose to come back."

Howard said then that he had last seen his ex-wife about a week before she was reported missing.

As long ago as July 29, authorities said they were close to an arrest. But it tonk months for forensic experts from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office to complete their investigation.

El Segundo police Chief Jack Wayt told reporters he had spoken with Keller's son, Michael.

"He's feeling a sense of relief, and he understands that this is going to go a long time. There's still a lot ahead of us," the police chief said.

Howard is facing a potential life prison term if convicted of his ex-wife's killing, according to prosecutors.