Driver Held on Suspicion of Murder – Police Investigate Death of Marine Found in Car

by Bill Billiter

Authorities said Monday that they were still trying to answer questions about the weekend murder of a 25-year-old Marine from El Toro whose body was discovered after a patrolman stopped an erratic driver. Orange County Sheriff’s Lt Wyatt Hart said the Marine Terry Lee Gambrel originally from Indiana is believed to have been strangled but the scene and the cause of the death are still unknown. Hart said Gambrel’s body was discovered by the California Highway Patrol about 1:15 am Saturday when a CHP officer stopped a car on Interstate 5 just north of Oslo Parkway in the Mission Viejo area.

Hart said the CHP stopped the car driver identified as Randy S Kraft 38 of Long Beach because the vehicle was being driven erratically. Further Tests Being Made “The investigating officer saw a passenger in the car who was either deceased or unconscious” Hart said. “The passenger (later identified as Gambrel) was taken to Mission Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead.” Hart said a preliminary autopsy showed Gambrel’s death was by strangulation. Further toxicological tests are being made Hart said.

Hart also said that Sheriff’s Department investigators will be meeting with representatives of the Garden Grove Buena Park and Seal Beach police departments which have three similar unsolved murders involving the strangulation deaths of young men. Hart said no evidentiary link of the cases has been discovered but the departments are exchanging information. Kraft was booked into the Orange County Jail on suspicion of murder and bail was set at $250000 Hart said. Hart said Kraft has refused to talk and the cause of the alleged murder is unknown and is under investigation.