Dennis RomeroTwo men charged with suspicion of murdering three people in Fullerton were involved in the “furry” community, according to reports. Victim Jennifer Goodwill-Yost, 39, and her 17-year-old daughter were also furries, according to the Orange County Register.
Cops said a 17-year-old was detained in connection with the case. Citing state law, they said the girl could not be identified. Yesterday the Orange County District Attorney's Office announced that 21-year-old Joshua Charles Acosta of Fort Irwin and 25-year-old Frank Sato Felix of Sun Valley were charged with suspicion of murder. Prosecutors allege that Acosta was the gunman.
The two face “three felony counts of special circumstances murder for committing multiple murders,” according to a D.A.'s statement. “Acosta is also charged with sentencing enhancements for the personal discharge of a firearm causing death. If convicted, they face a minimum sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole. The defendants are ineligible for bail.”
Arraignment was postponed to Oct. 28. The teen was not charged. The deceased were identified by authorities as Goodwill-Yost, husband Christopher Yost, 34, and family friend, Arthur William Boucher, 28.
Twenty-three-year-old Christopher Parque-Johnson told the Register that Jennifer Goodwill-Yost was like a mother figure to a group called the SoCal Furs. The two charged with suspicion of murder are furries, as was Yost's 17-year-old daughter, who was initially thought to be missing before authorities located her alive and well over the weekend, Parque-Johnson said.
We reached out to him but a SoCal Furs representative told us “he does not wish to be contacted by members of the media.”
NBC Los Angeles first reported the furry connection. A woman named Melinda Giles told the station she met Goodwill-Yost and her teen daughter at a furry gathering last year. She also said the mom had forbidden her daughter from seeing suspect Felix, whom she said she had also seen, along with Acosta, at furry events.
She said the
Officers responded to the Yost home in the 400 block of South Gilbert Street at 8:21 a.m. Saturday after a child reported that her parents “died,” according to the Fullerton Police Department. The deceased, along with two young girls, who were unharmed, were inside, authorities said.
Furries are people who identify with anthropomorphic animals, either by wearing costumes or by wearing badges that display their favorite characters.
In 2012 a 42-year-old furry clothing company executive was murdered in front of his Beverly Grove home. Victim Erik Poltorak had fingered 50-year-old Michael Thomas in an earlier crime, and Thomas, behind bars at the time of the homicide, set up a murder-for-hire plot to take out the witness. Thomas was convicted. He said he won't fight death penalty proceedings.
Family members of the Yosts have started a GoFundMe page to benefit the two girls, ages 6 and 8, left behind by the violence. Additionally, a benefit show for Arthur William Boucher was scheduled for Oct. 30 in Anaheim.
John Acosta, 21; Credit: Fullerton PD
Frank Felix, 25; Credit: Fullerton PD
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