Quick Take
The California Highway Patrol arrested 66-year-old James David Collier of Boulder Creek on Sunday in connection with a double homicide that the agency has been investigating for the past month.
The California Highway Patrol has made an arrest in the double homicide of two men found in a truck in the Santa Cruz Mountains in late March.
CHP detectives arrested James David Collier, 66, of Boulder Creek at about 6:30 a.m. on Sunday and booked him into the Santa Clara County Jail, according to a CHP news release. He was scheduled for arraignment on Monday afternoon.
Investigators were called to the area of Highway 35 near Oak Ridge Road, south of Castle Rock State Park, just before 7 p.m. on March 24, where they found two bodies inside an abandoned pickup truck. The men were identified as 53-year-old Colter White and 45-year-old Sean Pfeffer, both of Boulder Creek, by friends and family and later by the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office.
White sustained gunshot wounds to the torso and left upper and lower extremities, while Pfeffer sustained a gunshot wound to the chest. The two were reportedly good friends.
Andrew Barclay, a sergeant with CHP Golden Gate Division, which investigated the case, told Lookout on Monday that Collier was identified as a suspect within 48 hours of the incident, and investigators have since been building a case. Barclay said that the agency has “a pretty good idea of the motive,” but declined to comment further.
Collier’s name was mentioned in a cryptic Facebook post that Pfeffer made just a day before investigators discovered his and White’s bodies. Pfeffer wrote: “If today isn’t work out know that it was James Collier the piece of crap that I invited to this mountain that still hasn’t left it and is working the f–k out of my f–king cousin. I’m rolling down there right now Jimmy I hope you shoot me.”
CHP’s news release says that a CHP SWAT team joined Golden Gate Division detectives and crime scene investigators and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to serve a search warrant at a Santa Cruz County resident related to Collier. Evidence from the search prompted the issuing of a criminal complaint to the district attorney’s office as well as an arrest warrant for Collier. Barclay declined to disclose what the evidence was that led to Collier’s arrest.
“I want to commend our detectives for their incredible dedication and exceptional investigative efforts in bringing a suspect into custody in this tragic case,” said CHP Golden Gate Division Chief Don Goodbrand in the release. “The successful outcome would not have been possible without the outstanding partnership of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. We are grateful for their collaboration and unwavering commitment to justice.”
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