UPDATE, SEPT. 12, 8:39 A.M.: Costa Mesa Police investigators still are not releasing many details about a motive (or anything else) in the Aug. 30 stabbing death of 40-year-old Steven Craig DePhillips near Mesa Verde Country Club.
However, it's been revealed that DePhillips died in the driveway of the Capri Lane home of the parents of his ex-girlfriend, whose twin sister once dated Jeffrey Alec Henderson, the Costa Mesa 50-year-old accused of killing DePhillips.
The Daily Pilot has this odd twist in the murder case.
Laura Gregory's 6-year-old daughter with DePhillips, Catherine, lives in the home with her grandparents. They were out to dinner when DePhillips, who visited Catherine daily, got into an altercation with Henderson that resulted in the stabbing. DePhillips died at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana and Henderson was arrested later that night.
Henderson once dated Laura's twin sister, Lisa, reports the Pilot, which also discloses that earlier that same day, Catherine was at the nearby home of Jim Righeimer. Catherine is friends with the controversial Costa Mesa mayor pro tem's daughters.
Services for DePhillips are scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.
Henderson, who is charged with murder, is being held without bail in Orange County Jail.
UPDATE, SEPT. 6, 4:59 P.M.: The Costa Mesa Police Department today released the identity of the 40-year-old man who died after being stabbed in front of his a home near Mesa Verde Country Club on Aug. 30.
He was Steven Craig DePhillips.
Jeffrey Alec Henderson, 50, of Costa Mesa, remains locked up in Orange County Jail on suspicion of murder, notes the police statement that offers no other new details about the crime.
ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 31, 1:26 P.M.: A 40-year-old man died at Western Medical Center from stab wounds, and a man who may have been fighting with the victim Tuesday has been arrested for the departed's murder.
Jeffrey Alec Henderson, 50, of Costa Mesa, was arrested without incident in Fountain Valley and booked on suspicion of murder, according to the Costa Mesa Police Department.
His bail was set at $100,000.
Costa Mesa cops received a medical-aid call about 6:20 p.m. Tuesday from a residence in the 3000 block of Capri Lane, which is a chip shot away from the Mesa Verde Country Club. Police found the 40-year-old lying on the driveway in front of the residence on a cul de sac with stab wounds to his left torso and chest area. Costa Mesa Fire paramedics treated the man and rushed him to Western Med, where he later died from his injuries. His identity is being withheld pending notification to family members.
According to a Costa Mesa Police statement: officers and detectives interviewed people at the location, but it could not determine if the dead man was stabbed at the residence or dropped off there. They heard about another man in a blue truck or SUV. He may have been involved in an altercation with the victim.
He was believed to be Henderson, who was “associated with subjects residing at the Capri Lane residence” and who knew the dead man, according to police. A blue SUV matching the description of the suspect vehicle was discovered parked in the 2200 block of Pacific Avenue. Police believed people living with or known to Henderson were helping him.
He was ultimately found in the passenger seat of another SUV driven by someone else and stopped by Costa Mesa cops near Brookhurst Street and Warner Avenue in Fountain Valley.
Henderson was then taken to the Costa Mesa Police Department Jail. The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with related information is asked to call Costa Mesa Police Detective Scott Stafford at 714.754.5363 or Sergeant Ed Everett at 714.754.5395.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.