The suspect in a cold-case murder was set to be arraigned Thursday, decades after a woman’s body was discovered in Balboa Park.
On Sept. 4, 1999, golfers spotted Diane Ayres’ body in the bushes in the 1800 block of Golf Course Drive and called for help, according to the San Diego Police Department. Ayres was 23 and a San Diego resident.
The Medical Examiner’s Office determined she had been strangled.
Over the years, cold case investigators re-examined forensic evidence, which ultimately led to the identification of Christopher Lynn Creek, 52, as the suspect.
The SDPD worked closely with the FBI and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office throughout the investigation and ultimately located Creek in a prison across the country.
On June 16, he was arrested on the San Diego homicide warrant by the Laurens County Sheriff’s Department and transferred from Dodge State Prison in Chester, Georgia to the county jail.
Creek, who had been serving a sentence for an unrelated and unspecified offense, was extradited on Tuesday and booked into San Diego Central Jail.
