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Dead woman was Beatle intruder

Sierra Countis
Sierra Sun

Investigators confirmed the 34-year-old woman found dead Dec. 19 inside an SUV north of Truckee had been arrested on a number of incidents, including charges of trespassing at former Beatle George Harrison’s Hawaii home, Nevada County Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Smith said.

Cristin Joyce Keleher served four months in jail in 2000 for entering Harrison’s house without permission, eating a frozen pizza, and doing her laundry, according to the Associated Press.

Keleher’s frozen body and the body of Stanley Everett Merchant, 48, also of the Truckee area, were found inside a blood-spattered SUV parked along Old Highway 89, after authorities received an anonymous tip from a hiker who reported the suspicious parked vehicle. An autopsy completed Dec. 21 determined the cause of Keleher’s death was a gunshot wound to the head.



Keleher’s body was identified by her fingerprint card which was on file at the Truckee jail, Smith said. From Keleher’s fingerprint file investigators were able to pull up “a rap sheet on her that was a couple pages long,” Smith said.

While the Hawaii arrest was included in her record, there were no details to indicate why Keleher had been arrested for trespassing.



“It was a relatively minor charge,” Smith said.

While the incident is still under investigation, authorities said evidence indicates Keleher was shot outside the vehicle, then was placed inside the SUV, which was then driven about 100 yards. Sheriff’s investigators believe Merchant then lay down beside the body of Keleher and shot himself, also in the head. Two 12-gauge shotguns were found inside the vehicle next to Merchant’s body.

Evidence indicates the two had been staying together as a couple, Smith said. Investigators discovered a journal written by Keleher which indicated she and Merchant were looking for a place to live together in Truckee, he said. Smith said she had also told her parents of her plans to live with Merchant.

There was nothing written in Keleher’s journal to indicate why the two of them were in the woods together, Smith said.


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