A suspect in the slayings of two Redondo Beach women was arrested early Wednesday morning in Baja California, according to a news release from the .
Police believe Jonathan Scott Chacon, 23, killed two women at an apartment on Rockefeller Lane in North Redondo Beach.
The victims were Vicki Bergman, and her daughter, Courtney, who was a
The mother was 59, and her daughter was 19, said Coroner's Assistant Chief Ed Winter. The bodies were found by a co-worker of one of the victims, said Redondo Beach police Capt. Jeff Hink.
Police will not reveal how the women died, but Redondo Beach police Lt. Joe Hoffman said the slayings may have been related to a domestic issue.
"It's definitely a possibility," he said, noting the prior relationships between Chacon and the younger of the two victims.
Chacon, who officers believe was the boyfriend of the younger victim, was found and arrested after police learned he might have fled to Mexico, police said in the statement.
"Detectives worked through the night in conjunction with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Mexican authorities to locate Chacon," wrote Hoffman.
Authorities found Chacon at a hotel in Rosarito Beach, Hoffman said. He was detained by Mexican authorities and transferred back to the United States on Thursday morning. He is currently in the custody of the Redondo Beach Police Department and will be booked on two counts of murder.
Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff's Department later discovered Chacon's black Mustang convertible parked near Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo. Redondo police will take possession of the vehicle as part of their investigation. How Chacon got from Mission Viejo to Mexico is unknown, Hoffman said.
"We're not exactly sure," he said. "We don't know if he got somebody to drive him to Mexico and parked his car (in Mission Viejo)."
Hoffman said Chacon was returned to the United States without delay because he is not a Mexican national but, rather, a U.S. citizen who was carrying a U.S. passport.
In an interview with the Easy Reader, Hink credited the arrest to the numerous tips the department received Tuesday.
Hoffman told Patch that the department received more than 50 tips regarding the case via telephone, text messaging and email. Some tipsters said they had actually spotted the suspect, while others saw the car or provided possible destinations, he said.
The deaths of Vicky Bergman and her daughter were the second and third slayings in Redondo Beach in less than a week. A week ago today, a woman in South Redondo was shot to death by her estranged husband, who later committed suicide during a three-hour standoff with state troopers on Interstate 15 in Utah.
Prior to Feb. 22, the city had three reported killings in the previous five years, said Redondo Beach police Sgt. Michael Martinez.
Previously:
City News Service contributed to this report.
