| For Immediate Release Case # 10CF2387 November 27, 2012 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
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MAN FACES TRIAL FOR MURDERING, DECAPITATING AND DISMEMBERING WIFE OF 39 YEARS
SANTA ANA – A man faces trial tomorrow for murdering his wife of 39 years and then decapitating and dismembering her after an argument in their Rancho Santa Margarita home. Richard Gustav Forsberg, 63, is charged with one felony count of murder and faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison. Opening statements are expected to begin tomorrow, Nov. 28, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-40, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
On Feb. 9, 2010, the defendant is accused of getting into a verbal argument with his wife Marcia Ann Forsberg. Forsberg is accused of grabbing a small statue and hitting the victim multiple times in the head, murdering her. He is accused of keeping her body in their home and decapitating and dismembering her body over the next few days.
The defendant is accused of renting a recreational vehicle (RV) and buying two new freezers. He is accused of putting the victim’s dismembered body in the freezers and using the RV to drive the freezers to a campground at Lake Piru Recreation Area in Ventura County. He is accused of disposing of the victim by burning the dismembered parts of her body.
When questioned by friends about the whereabouts of his wife, Forsberg is accused of claiming that they were having marital problems and that she had left town to be on her own. On Aug. 24, 2010, concerned friends of the victim reported her missing. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigated this case.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
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