RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A man and his wife were arrested Tuesday in the slaying of a teen-age orphan for whom they had provided a home.
David Birrell, 28, was booked into Riverside County Jail on suspicion of killing Hope Elfman, 17, who was raped and strangled.
Birrell's wife, Katherine, also 28, was booked as an accessory to murder. Birrell was not charged in the sexual attack.
Miss Elfman's nude body was found in the Birrell's yard last Nov. 18.
Her mother had died when she was 9, two years after her father.
The teen-ager reportedly had problems with relatives with whom she lived in Connecticut and some of them later told investigators she was a troubled girl.
Last summer, she moved in with the Birrells, who had been friends of her parents', and attended Norco High School. Students described her as popular and 'super happy.'
Birrell told reporters after the girl's death that she had made a lot of enemies and would not always follow house rules the family set down for her.
Detectives arrested Birrell Tuesday at Santa Monica Telephone Co., where he worked, and his wife was arrested at their Norco home. They were each held in lieu of $250,000 bail. Their three small children were taken to a shelter.
