A preliminary hearing for 2005 cold case murder suspect, Dennis Griffin Pease, will be held in San Bernardino County Superior Court on Wednesday, April 24. (File Photo)
By Michael P. Neufeld
San Bernardino, CA – The suspect in a 2005 cold case murder returns to court April 24.
Dennis Pease
Dennis Griffin Pease, 56, will appear for a preliminary hearing at 8:30 a.m. in Department S-21P. He is accused of killing Willard Eichler, 54, of Fresno, and dumping his body on Swarthout Canyon Road in the Cajon Pass, on November 11, 2005. Swarthout Canyon Road is located east of the I-15 freeway and south of Highway 138.
Pease is being detained at the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino on $1 million bail.
THE COLD CASE
Willard Eichler
In 2005, Pease was located driving Eichler’s missing Ford LTD. Pease was arrested for felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced to state prison for one year. At the time of that arrest, authorities didn’t have sufficient evidence to link Pease to the killing.
After his release from prison, Pease was a transient, according to a media release issued by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
In 2011, the Sheriff’s Homicide Cold Case Team took charge of the investigation and completed additional interviews. Evidence from the scene and Eichler’s car was analyzed and linked Pease to the murder.
WARRANT ISSUED
On January 12, 2012, a warrant for Pease’s arrest was issued, charging him with Eichler’s murder.
Seven months later, on July 18, 2012, Eichler was located by a U. S. Marshal’s Service Fugitive Task Fo0rce residing in a transient camp behind a gas station in Orlando, Florida. He was eventually extradited to San Bernardino County where he is on trial for Eichler’s murder. (216)
