Details surface on iced body

The four-diamond hotel room where Newport Beach police detectives found the body of Monique Trepp packed in dry ice last month was covered with “hundreds” of photographs of a blond woman, according to search warrants.

Police also found an electric saw, similar to a jigsaw, and papers detailing how to clean up a crime scene and body decomposition in a hotel room on the ninth floor of the Fairmont Newport Beach hotel, where native New Zealander Stephen Royds, 46, was said to have lived for two years, according to the search warrants.

Royds told detectives after he was arrested on drug charges that his girlfriend Trepp, 33, a one-time Huntington Beach resident, died about a year before police found her body packed in dry ice in a 2-by-3-foot plastic bin in his hotel room March 6, authorities said.

Royds told police he found Trepp lying dead on the floor of the hotel room on or around March 24, 2007, but chose not to call police because there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest, the search warrant states. Royds was convicted of drug charges in 2002, but he skipped his sentencing and has been wanted ever since, court documents show. He kept Trepp’s corpse preserved for a week with ice, before putting the body into a plastic container kept cool with dry ice, Royds told police.

Officers searching the room looking for cocaine and other items related to alleged drug dealing found the large plastic container along the bedroom wall, police said. The container was cold and emitted a “strong pungent odor” when opened, Newport Beach Police Det. Robert Watts wrote in a statement contained in the search warrant.

Watts saw a thermometer attached to a black wire that led into the container, which appeared to contain something frozen, according to the officer’s written account of the search.

“As I reached into the container, I felt a hard oval object covered in cloth,” Watts said in his statement. “I removed the cloth and observed blond hair and the top of a human head.”

The detectives recovered the clothes Royds is believed to have removed from Trepp’s body before stowing her in the plastic tub. A green designer suede jacket and suede skirt were found in the room after detectives obtained a second search warrant following the discovery of Trepp’s body.

Law enforcement officials have said Royds is not a suspect in Trepp’s death, which is believed to be a drug overdose. The results of toxicology tests are still pending.

“Royds became so distraught that he needed medical attention” when police told him they were going to search Room 966 at the Fairmont, according to Watts. Royds was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian after police told him they had a search warrant for the hotel room. He was taken to Orange County Jail after being treated and released, where he remains awaiting trial on felony drug charges.

Officers had obtained an initial warrant to search the room in March for possible evidence that Royds, who went by the nickname “Kiwi,” had been selling cocaine at the Classic Q bar in Newport Beach after a tip from an informant, according to the search warrants.

The detectives arrested Royds March 6 at the Fairmont before searching his room. Royds had several packets containing a white powdery substance the detectives believed to be cocaine when he was arrested, according to the search warrants.

The detectives recovered numerous items from Room 966 during their first search including a poster board collage of photographs of Trepp, a thermal bag containing several bags of dry ice, an air pistol, a brief case filled with modeling photographs of Trepp and a gray canvas bag containing women’s clothing and a sex toy.

Detectives also found a bra in the room with a condom inside filled with a crystalline substance, which tested negative for methamphetamine, according to the search warrant.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].