SONOMA COUNTY – Bay Area authorities have arrested a couple and charged them with the Tuesday burglary of the Sonoma home of a family killed in a car crash last Saturday.

Sonoma Police Department Chief Bret Sackett reported Wednesday that San Mateo County residents Amber Marie True, 29, and her boyfriend Michael Vincent Guiterrez, 26, were arrested in connection with breaking into the home of John Maloney, 45, and his wife Susan, 42.

The couple and their young children, Aiden, 8, and Grace, 5, died in a four-vehicle collision on Highway 37 Saturday night after they were hit by a Mini Cooper driven by 19-year-old Steven Culbertson of Lakeport. Culbertson died of his injuries late Sunday morning.

At 7 a.m. Tuesday Sonoma Police responded to the Maloney home, located on Fryer Creek Drive, on the report of a burglary. Sackett said they found that the house had been ransacked and the family's personal property stolen. Also taken was the family's 2006 Nissan 350z.

Detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department Property Crimes unit, along with Detectives from the Crime Scene Investigations Unit, responded to assist with the investigation, including processing the scene and interviewing neighbors, Sackett explained.

Later on Tuesday, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office alerted Sonoma authorities when a routine traffic stop on True turned up a credit card belonging to Susan Maloney, along with additional property believed to be taken from the Sonoma home, Sackett reported.

Detectives then tracked down Gutierrez, who was located a short time later at the couples' home in rural San Mateo County, driving the Maloneys' Nissan 350Z, according to Sackett.

Sackett said detectives served a search warrant at the home and recovered a large amount of property believed to be taken from the Maloneys' residence, including financial records, jewelry, electronics and other personal property.

Detectives were working with family members to identify the recovered property, but it is believed that the vast majority, if not all, of the property has been recovered, Sackett said.

True and Gutierrez were booked into the Sonoma County Jail on charges of burglary and vehicle theft, with bail set at $500,000.

 

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