Mystery in Baja : Slaying of Flamboyant U.S. Executive Baffles Authorities

PLAYA LA MISION, Baja California —  It was just after sunset in this seaside village when the flamboyant life of Claude L. Falkenstien Jr. came to an abrupt end.

Shot once through the heart with a 38-caliber bullet, the free-spending Newport Beach advertising executive died on the floor of the vacation home where he had been spending nearly every weekend.

But more than seven months after Falkenstien’s death, Mexican police are no closer to determining what happened than they were on the night of Nov. 6, when frantic neighbors summoned them from Rosarito, 20 miles away.

The police were told that Falkenstien had been shot by robbers who broke into the secluded bungalow, confronting the businessman and his frightened girlfriend. The girlfriend’s account was supported in part by two neighbors, who said they heard the shots and came running to help. Almost from the beginning, however, investigators had grave doubts.

“There was no robbery,” Genaro Valle Lopez, chief of the Mexican State Judicial Police in Rosarito, now says bluntly.

Case Still a Mystery

But despite a detailed investigation, Falkenstien’s death remains a mystery whose cast includes a Florida man, who is wanted for allegedly stealing $20,000 worth of exotic birds, and the dead man’s girlfriend, whose last known address was in Irvine.

Falkenstien, 58, had been a member of the exclusive Balboa Bay Club. He was always dapper, with a salt-and-pepper beard and fashionable clothes, and often wore heavy gold jewelry. He drove a black Cadillac with vanity license plates reading “FALKIE,” and never hesitated to pick up the tab for lunch, friends recalled.

Yet some people sensed another side to Falkenstien. Despite his constant talk of big business deals, he seemed reluctant to disclose details. “He always was kind of secretive, even when he was young,” recalled Georgia Seuferling, 78, Falkenstien’s mother, who lives in North Kansas City, Mo.

That secretiveness was apparent in Falkenstien’s relationship with Patricia Engels, 38, office manager for his direct-mail advertising business, Mass Media Marketing. Falkenstien--three times divorced with no children, according to court records--told the firm’s staff that Engels was his daughter, said Holly Dufau, the company’s vice president.

By 1987, Engels, whose marriage had ended in divorce, was living with Falkenstien, Seuferling said. While the couple was shopping for a vacation home in Baja California last summer, they met Gary and Patricia Lockwood.

Based on a pair of handwritten statements sent by the Lockwoods to a friend after the shooting and on details provided by police and Falkenstien’s neighbors, the couples’ relationship unfolded this way:

In July, Falkenstien leased a house managed by the Lockwoods, and by fall, the two couples had become close friends.

By November, Falkenstien was thinking about investing in other vacation homes in the area, and on Nov. 6, a Sunday, the two couples agreed to spend the afternoon scouting properties along the scenic Baja coast.

Lunch at Restaurant

For Falkenstien and Engels, that day began pleasantly. A neighbor spotted the slender, attractive blond and her companion returning arm-in-arm from a morning walk on the beach. The couple met the Lockwoods for lunch at La Fachada, a nearby hotel and restaurant with a stunning view of the Pacific. A hotel photographer captured a smiling Falkenstien and Engels cuddled on a wicker chair.

As the couples drove along the coast, the Lockwoods noticed that something seemed to be troubling Falkenstien.

“I asked him what was wrong,” Gary Lockwood wrote in his 44-page statement. “He replied that he had a rough week at work and that his pancreas was acting up.”

They returned to Falkenstien’s house about 5 p.m., and the Lockwoods stayed for about 15 minutes. Then, as Falkenstien walked the couple to the door, he suddenly grabbed Gary Lockwood’s shoulder. “Gary, get us out of here, we aren’t safe,” Falkenstien said, as recounted in one of the statements.

Neighbors said a string of armed robberies in recent months had terrified many residents of Playa La Mision, a tiny retirement village populated mostly by Americans. Falkenstien had reported his house among those burglarized only two weeks earlier. He had had bars installed on the windows, and Lockwood wired the house with an elaborate alarm system. In addition, Falkenstien had purchased a walkie-talkie and CB radios for his house and for the Lockwoods’ home, about a three-minute drive away.

Heard Explosions

Once the Lockwoods were back home, they heard two explosions that sounded like firecrackers, followed by a pause of several seconds, then two or three more pops, they recounted. They said Engels’ frantic voice cried through the CB: “Gary, they shot Falk! They shot him, they shot him!”

After a burglar alarm was tripped, neighbors converged on the house and found it in disarray--chairs toppled, a dresser moved, a wine glass shattered in front of the fireplace, and Falkenstien dead on the floor of his bedroom.

Neighbors said Engels seemed hysterical, laughing, crying and dashing a bowl of sour cream to the floor. It took more than 1 1/2 hours for Mexican police to arrive. They inspected the house and took Engels, the Lockwoods and another neighbor to Rosarito for questioning.

Engels told investigators, according to Police Chief Valle, that she was preparing dinner in the kitchen and Falkenstien was seated at the bar when two masked gunmen burst in, demanding Falkenstien’s wallet and jewelry. Engels said she dropped to the floor and slowly crawled to a hidden security system switch while Falkenstien went into the bedroom to get his briefcase.

Engels said the robbers panicked when she triggered the alarm. She said they ran into the bedroom, shot Falkenstien and got away on foot. She said they stole Falkenstien’s wallet--containing several hundred dollars in cash--along with his briefcase, his jewelry and her purse.

Said She Grabbed Gun

To scare off the robbers and to alert neighbors, she said, she grabbed a gun Falkenstien kept hidden in a dresser and fired a shot through the screen door in the kitchen, then stepped outside and fired several more shots into the air. But police found no gun at the scene.

Over the next few days, investigators continued to question Engels and the Lockwoods, talking to them individually and taking them back to the scene of the shooting. Officers drove Engels to Tijuana, about 40 minutes north, and performed standard paraffin tests on her hands, which confirmed the presence of gunpowder. A police artist also drew sketches of the robbers based on her description.

Then, Patricia Lockwood told detectives that she had been holding something back. Minutes after the shooting, in a misguided effort to protect Engels, she had taken a gun and hidden it under a sofa pillow in her house, she said. Officers went to the house and found the weapon exactly where Lockwood said it would be.

By now, time was running out for the investigators, who cannot legally detain Americans more than 72 hours without filing criminal charges. Despite their suspicions, they released Engels and the Lockwoods.

The three friends then left the police station in Rosarito with Engels’ parents, who had driven down from Los Angeles. They took showers at a nearby hotel, then headed north, leaving all their possessions behind.

‘We Were Alive’

“All of us were crying,” Lockwood wrote in his statement, angry at what he said were false accusations by the Mexican police. “We finally were free, our injustices over and we were alive.”

Police said it was not until after the three were across the border that investigators returned to the Lockwood house, searched further and discovered Engels’ purse and Falkenstien’s jewelry in the bottom of a laundry basket.

When police also found Falkenstien’s missing briefcase and wallet--still stuffed with cash--in the trunk of the Lockwoods’ car, they said, they turned to U.S. authorities for help.

A check by Mexican police with the California Highway Patrol revealed that the Lockwoods’ real names are Gary and Patricia Locklear, and that Gary is wanted for grand theft in Florida.

Florida authorities then told them that Gary Locklear had owned a business near St. Petersburg in which he boarded and trained exotic birds. One day in early 1986, the authorities said, he had left town with $20,000 worth of the birds.

Traffic Violation

About a year later, Gary Locklear was arrested in Dana Point, Fla., after being pulled over on a traffic violation. But while awaiting his arraignment, he fled to Playa La Mision, according to the statement written by Lockwood.

Lockwood denied in the statement that he and his wife were responsible for placing Falkenstien’s briefcase and wallet in the trunk.

About two weeks after Falkenstien’s death, two Mexican police investigators went to Orange County in an attempt to again question Engels and the Lockwoods. The officers even held a news conference, announcing that Engels was a “strong” suspect and that the three friends were being sought for questioning.

But the three were nowhere to be found. In a recent interview, Investigator Manuel Carrasco said he has called Engels’ parents in Wilmington, Calif.: “They say they don’t know where she is.”

Since Engels has committed no crime in Orange County, there is no reason for authorities there to pursue her, said Bryan Brown, a deputy district attorney in Santa Ana. To get Engels back to Rosarito, the Mexican government would have to extradite her, which can only occur if Engels is charged with a crime, officials said.

Life Insurance Policy

Mexican police say they have been told that Falkenstien had a $60,000 life insurance policy that doubled in value if his death occurred other than by suicide. The $120,000 proceeds are to be split by Engels and the dead man’s first wife, Delores Marie Falkenstien, said Carrasco, the investigator.

Meanwhile, the disposition of Falkenstien’s estate continues in Orange County probate court.

Several weeks after his death, a will was filed leaving everything to Delores Falkenstien, a Glendora schoolteacher who was married to the businessman for 17 years. The will was signed in 1975, just after the couple divorced, and a list of Falkenstien’s assets is still being compiled, said Richard Saavedra, Delores Falkenstien’s attorney. She could not be reached for comment.

But there won’t be anything left if Falkenstien’s creditors have their way. They are seeking $200,000 from his estate, now valued at $22,000.