Police Probe '93 Death Of Ore. Suspect's Aunt

MEDFORD, Ore. - Police in California are revisiting the unsolved strangulation of an aunt of the man charged in the slayings of a lesbian couple here nearly two weeks ago.

"There is nothing specific about that case that links him to that," said Detective Sgt. John Zapalac of the Tulare County (Calif.) Sheriff's Department. "It's just one of any number of unsolved cases that would be looked at."

Robert James Acremant, 27, was arrested Wednesday in Stockton, Calif., on Oregon warrants charging him with aggravated murder in the Dec. 4 slayings in Medford of Roxanne Ellis, 53, and Michelle Abdill, 42, who were domestic partners as well as partners in a property-management firm.

Acremant's aunt, Sherri Renee Herrera, 30, of Tulare, Calif., disappeared March 25, 1993. Her body was found five days later next to a highway on-ramp in the desert east of Indio, Calif.

This week, Acremant's father said his son said he killed Ellis and Abdill to rob them, so he could get money to leave the country. But that revelation has done little to ease the fears of the gay community.

"It's too early to rule out a hate crime or bias as a motivation in this murder," David Smith, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said yesterday.

Police also were not ready to rule out as a factor the women's work on a campaign against a statewide anti-gay-rights initiative last year. However, investigators said they had no evidence to indicate that.

But Cherie Garland, a close friend of Ellis and Abdill, said she was puzzled that someone would think he could get a lot of money from the women.

Acremant's father, Kenneth Acremant, a cattle rancher and bar owner in Stockton, said he felt the pressures of failing in a computer software venture in Los Angeles and breaking up with his girlfriend proved too much for his son.

Robert Acremant, a 1985 graduate of Auburn (Wash.) High School, also admitted to killing a friend, Scott George, 23, of Visalia, Calif., on Oct. 3 in a fit of rage after a night of drinking, Kenneth Acremant said.