COSTA MESA (YBH) – In a bizarre crime that has shocked Southern California, an Orange County stage actor named Daniel Wozniak stands accused of murdering a young U.S. soldier and Afghan war veteran. After the murder, Mr. Wozniak allegedly dismembered the man’s corpse, and killed the veteran’s female friend after luring her to the murder victim’s apartment by texting her from the dead man’s cell phone.
Daniel Wozniak
According to Costa Mesa homicide detectives, Wozniak, 26, is accused of murdering neighbor Samuel Herr (also 26) on May 21st. Herr had served with the Army’s 173rd Airborne, with tours in Afghanistan and Germany. Herr left the military last summer, and was attending Orange Coast College on the G.I. Bill, with the hope of earning a college degree and rejoining the Army as an officer.
According to police, Wozniak took Herr to an empty theater at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base (where Wozniak had once performed in a theatrical production), and shot him at point-blank range. After killing Herr, Wozniak reportedly cut off the man’s head, left arm, and right hand, leaving the torso in the attic of the theater, and scattering the other body parts around El Dorado Park in Long Beach.
Following the murder, Wozniak went to Herr’s apartment and sent a text message to Herr’s friend and tutor Juri Kibuishi asking her to come to the apartment. Upon her arrival, Wozniak allegedly shot her and arranged the body to appear as though Kibuishi had been the victim of a sexual assault.
Costa Mesa police believe that Wozniak’s intent was for police to believe that Herr, the Afghan vet, had raped and murdered his tutor, and fled. And initially, this was the first scenario that police focused on. All they knew for certain was that Kibuishi was dead, and Herr was missing.
Herr’s father Steven, who had been the one to discover Kibuishi’s body when he drove to his son’s apartment after not hearing from him for several days, told police that he knew for certain his son could not possibly be responsible for such a heinous crime.
And it turned out he was right. Detectives soon began to notice a pattern: Herr’s bank account was slowly being drained of money (according to Herr’s father, Herr had a life savings of around $15,000). Police conducted surveillance of local ATMs, and they soon arrested an under-aged teen who had used Herr’s ATM card to withdraw $2,000.
The teen told police that Daniel Wozniak had directed him to withdraw the funds.
Wozniak has reportedly confessed to the killings and told police where they could find Herr’s remains. On Friday, May 28th, Wozniak was charged with two felony counts of murder with special circumstances. His brother Timothy was also arrested on suspicion of helping Wozniak dispose of evidence.
So who is Daniel Wozniak, and why did he murder two innocent people? Wozniak was a fairly major player in the Orange County theater scene. He had recently wrapped a lead performance in the musical “Nine” at the Hunger Artists Theatre Company in Fullerton, and prior to that he had starred in a production of “The Green Room” at the Orange County Theatre Company.
Police speculate that money was the motive for Wozniak’s brutal crimes. He reportedly owed money to several acquaintances, and he was about to be evicted from his apartment for non-payment of rent.
Adding to the twists in this disturbing case, Wozniak was to be married on yesterday (the day he was formally charged) to his “Nine” and “Green Room” co-star Rachel Buffett. Police do not believe Ms. Buffett was complicit in her fiancé’s crimes, but they have acknowledged arresting a man named “Noah David Buffett” as an accomplice (as of today, this individual’s relationship to Wozniak’s fiancé has not been officially explained, but YBH! can confirm that Daniel Wozniak has both Rachel Buffett and Noah David Buffett as “friends” on the social networking site Facebook, and Rachel Buffett and Noah David Buffett are also Facebook “friends” on their own pages).
YBH! has uncovered this footage of Daniel Wozniak and his fiancé Rachel Buffett joking around in outtakes from a video promo for their 2009 play “The Green Room.” The jovial manner of the suspect (in this video produced for the Orange County Theatre Center) is all the more disturbing considering the calculated viciousness of the crimes he’s accused of:
In a final bizarre development, Wozniak’s father Daryl told the media that his son is now in a coma following a suicide attempt while in custody. There has been no official confirmation of that claim.
What is certain is that this will be a painful and heart-wrenching Memorial Day weekend for the family of Afghan war vet Samuel Herr, a young man with a life full of promise, and a patriot who bravely served his country, and who sought to devote his life to the defense of the nation he loved.
YesButHowever.com asks its readers to keep the Herr family in their thoughts and prayers as we observe this solemn weekend.
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