Quick Take
Theo Lengyel was arraigned in Santa Cruz Superior Court on Thursday after being charged with murdering his girlfriend, Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann. He has entered a not-guilty plea and his preliminary hearing setting date has been set for April 4.
A Bay Area musician pleaded not guilty Thursday in a Santa Cruz courtroom to charges of murder, first-degree residential burglary and the unlawful taking of a vehicle in the case of a missing Capitola woman. Judge Syda Cogliati set his preliminary hearing setting date for April 4.
Capitola police arrested Theobald “Theo” Lengyel, also known as Mylo Stone, 54, on Jan. 2. Lengyel is the boyfriend of Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann, 61, who has been missing since early December. Lengyel has been charged with murder after police found human remains in a park in Berkeley. Investigators now say they believe Herrmann is dead.
El Cerrito investigators previously said they found Herrmann’s red 2007 Toyota Highlander in front of Lengyel’s home in El Cerrito, an East Bay city north of Berkeley.
In mid-December, police identified Lengyel as a person of interest in Herrmann’s disappearance and said he had not cooperated with the investigation. Investigators said Lengyel had traveled to Portland, Oregon, in the days immediately following the disappearance.
Herrmann’s friends and family remember her fondly, and call her accomplishments impressive. She attended Pomona College at 16 years old, got a bachelor of science degree from Caltech in an era when there were very few women enrolled, earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience, was a professor at the University of Lausanne, had a black belt in taekwondo and spoke multiple languages.
Lengyel is a founding member of a Humboldt County-based funk-metal band Mr. Bungle, with whom he played from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The band included Faith No More singer Mike Patton.
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