Murder suspect was jailed

A Canadian citizen charged last week with a 23-year-old unsolved homicide in Huntington Beach was apparently in California up until six weeks ago serving time in state prison for a 1986 sexual assault in Costa Mesa, authorities said.

The suspect, Gerald Su Go, 51, has been charged with the 1984 murder of Elizabeth May Hoffschneider while committing rape, burglary and robbery, district attorneys said.

Canadian authorities arrested Go in Toronto in connection with a 1984 murder. Go was released from prison six weeks ago and was immediately deported to Canada, police said.

The investigation linking him to the crime using DNA evidence secured charges after he was deported.

If convicted of this crime he faces a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In 2004 a jury convicted Go in an Orange County court for the 1986 crime, which occurred the apartment complex where he lived in the 600 block of Baker Street, police said.

Go had jumped bail and left the country after his arrest on the 1986 offense, but he was caught on a routine immigration check when he tried to come back into the country via New York in 2004, Bunetta said.

Go’s two and a half years in California prison ended about six weeks ago, he said.

Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Bob Ciszek, a veteran of the force, had been on the job about 18 months when he arrived at the complex at 2:20 a.m. in response to attempted rape reports.

“There was a woman screaming, and when we got there it turned out the guy got there through a partially open slider and tried to attack her with a stun gun, and she just battled him off,” Ciszek said.

The victim waited for police in a neighbor’s apartment, Ciszek said. She told police she recognized Go from the complex, Ciszek said.

She was not seriously injured, and police arrested Go 12 hours later.

“For some reason the victim didn’t feel like the stun gun worked correctly,” Ciszek said. “She was able to get to the door and get there through the door.”

A Los Angeles Times story in 1984 reported that Hoffschneider was found strangled on her bed in the 16200 block of Parkside Lane, where she lived alone, after she went missing from her job in Fountain Valley. She was 38.

The Times reported there were no signs of forced entry, but neighbors heard choking and screaming sounds for a few minutes the night she died.

Huntington Beach police said they linked Go to the slaying using DNA evidence and modern forensic techniques. Evidence kept from the scene of the crime was sent to the Orange Count Sheriff’s Department crime lab, where advances in technology made it possible to match the DNA to Go, police said.

The Toronto police fugitive squad arrested Go Oct. 23.

Go is scheduled to face extradition proceedings in Canada to bring him to the United States for prosecution. Because Go is a Canadian citizen, he could potentially fight extradition to the United States for a year or more, MacIntyre said. But if Go doesn’t resist, he could face charges in Orange County soon, he added.

“It’s a lengthy process,” Orange County Dist. Atty. spokeswoman Farrah Emami said. “We’re working with the Canadian officials.”

KELLY STRODL may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected]. MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected].