Mexicans Say Baja Murder Case Solved : Crime: The girlfriend of a slain Newport Beach businessman is cleared by police, who said that two men have confessed to the 1988 robbery-killing.

Mexican police announced this week that they have solved the bizarre mystery of who killed the flamboyant Claude L. Falkenstien. They say two robbers confessed to shooting the Newport Beach businessman while his girlfriend crouched in the kitchen of his Baja California seaside home.

Until now, Mexican police had suspected that Falkenstien’s girlfriend, Patricia Engels, was somehow involved in the shooting on the night of Nov. 6, 1988. Engels told police that a robber shot Falkenstien and fled with valuables, but investigators began doubting her story when the goods turned up a few days later in the trunk of a neighbor’s car.

In the meantime, Engels returned to the United States and refused to submit to further questioning by Mexican police.

“It was absurd that they accused her,� said Malcolm Mike Guleserian, Falkenstien’s lawyer and close friend of 10 years. “It was terrible. She watched him die and then was accused of doing it.�

Added Bethany Falkenstien, one of the dead man’s three former wives, “Oh my God, after all this time--it’s unbelievable. . . . It’s a relief. He was my best friend.�

Attempts to contact Engels through her parents and friends were unsuccessful on Friday.

Two men who allegedly confessed to murdering the 58-year-old Falkenstien were identified as Sergio Gomez Ramirez, 39, who is jailed in Guadalajara on another crime, and Rodrigo Corona Lopez, 33, of Guadalajara, who was arrested this week.

While being interrogated by prison officials, Gomez allegedly said he and Corona killed Falkenstien during a bungled robbery at the businessman’s leased home in Playa La Mision, about 20 miles south of Rosarito, according to Genaro Valle Lopez, chief of the Mexican state judicial police in Rosarito.

Gomez “told us how Falkenstien was dressed, where his girlfriend was--and everything matched what the girlfriend told us,� Valle said. “They are the ones who are to blame, no doubt.�

At first, Mexican police believed Engels’ account. Engels told officers that she was in the kitchen preparing dinner when two robbers burst into the house, shot Falkenstien and fled on foot.

Engels said she had reached for a pistol hidden under a dresser and fired shots in the air outdoors to scare the robbers away and signal for help.

For two days, police held Engels and some neighbors for questioning, then released them. Engels returned to Orange County.

But as the investigation proceeded, odd details surfaced. Co-workers at Falkenstien’s Newport Beach ad company, Mass Media Marketing, said he had introduced Engels, 38, not as his girlfriend but as his daughter. The neighbors who owned the car in which Falkenstien’s valuables were found turned out to be wanted by police on suspicion of stealing $20,000 worth of birds in Florida.

And Falkenstien, a Balboa Bay Club member who was fond of heavy gold jewelry and spent nearly every weekend in Baja, turned out to have owned a business that was more than $180,000 in debt at the time of his death.

Mexican police also learned of a $120,000 life insurance policy that was to be split between Engels and Delores Falkenstien, the dead man’s first wife and executor of his estate.

It was suspicion that Engels had not told the truth about the theft of Falkenstien’s wallet, briefcase and jewelry that primarilay led investigators to believe that she knew something more about the murder.

“Why did she do that?� Valle wondered. “Maybe to justify that an assault really happened? Maybe she was just scared we wouldn’t believe her.�

Valle said Gomez and Corona have also confessed to committing a string of Playa La Mision house robberies in the weeks before Falkenstien’s death.

Valle said Mexican police are publicizing the closing of the Falkenstien case in the hope that Engels will return to Mexico to identify Corona and Gomez, if they were the intruders who killed Falkenstien.

But the prosecution of Gomez and Corona will proceed with or without Engels’ help, he said.

Gomez will finish serving a sentence for robbery and assault before being sentenced on his apparent confession in Falkenstien’s death, Valle said.

Corona, who is held in Rosarito, will be sentenced within the next month, Valle said.

He predicted that each man will spend at least 30 years in prison for Falkenstien’s death.