Car Believed Abandoned by Slaying Suspect Is Searched : Investigation: Police hope to speed extradition of Douglas Frederick Stanley from Colorado to face charges in shooting of 2 women in Fountain Valley.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Seeking new leads on a double-murder suspect’s flight from Orange County, Fountain Valley police investigators Tuesday searched the escape vehicle he allegedly stole as they sought to speed the task of taking the one-time ranch hand back to California to stand trial.

Police predicted they will have little trouble next week in persuading a Colorado judge to order 57-year-old Douglas Frederick

Stanley back to California to face two counts of murder in connection with a shooting spree Thursday in a Fountain Valley embroidery store.

Stanley was arrested about 2 a.m. Sunday at a roadside rest stop in the Rocky Mountain town of Parachute, Colo.

“I think we have a pretty overwhelming case against the guy right now,” Fountain Valley Police Capt. Bill De Nisi said in an interview Tuesday. “It is a circumstantial case, but it’s pretty apparent he was the one that killed these two ladies,” De Nisi said. “He was there at the (murder) scene. He was seen leaving the scene. He was found in close proximity of the vehicle taken from the scene. And he was found in possession of the weapon that will more than likely turn out to be the gun used in the crime.”

Killed at the Design-It shop on Slater Avenue were owner Joyce Stanley, the suspect’s 52-year-old sister-in-law, and employee Terry Vasquez, 41. Police are still searching for a motive, but suggest that Stanley--a man said to have a hot temper and a fascination with guns--held a “personal grudge” against some of his family members.

Public defenders from Orange County and Colorado representing Stanley in the capital case have said little about his potential defense. Their concerns have centered on Stanley’s most immediate problem, his pending extradition to California.

David Eisner, a Mesa County, Colo., deputy public defender who represented Stanley at a court hearing Monday, said the suspect initially told Fountain Valley police that he would return voluntarily to Orange County, speeding up the legal process.

But Stanley changed his mind after speaking Monday with a public defender from Orange County and will now fight extradition, Eisner said Tuesday. That process will begin at a hearing in Colorado next Tuesday and could take anywhere from 30 to 90 days.

A spokesman for Gov. Pete Wilson said Tuesday that the governor will await a request from the Orange County district attorney’s office before formally asking Colorado officials to send Stanley back to Orange County to face criminal charges.

Stanley was taken off a suicide watch Tuesday and moved in with the general inmate population at Mesa County Jail, Mesa County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Don Williams said.

New details emerged Tuesday about Stanley’s capture in Colorado. A state trooper involved in the arrest said he believes the suspect would have tried to shoot him had his .38-caliber handgun not fallen from his pant leg during questioning by police at the rest stop.

Police began questioning Stanley after noticing that his clothes and appearance fit the description of the man wanted in connection with the Fountain Valley shootings. State Trooper Randy Godsey said that as he and two other officers were speaking with Stanley, the suspect appeared to be nervously clutching something with both hands “close to his belly.”

“He was volatile and you could tell if he’d had a chance he definitely would have tried something. I think he had his hand on the butt of the gun, but I think the gun slid down his waistband,” Godsey said.

Authorities are still uncertain where Stanley spent the more than 2 1/2 days between the Fountain Valley slayings and his capture, but Godsey said that at the time of the arrest, Stanley “looked like he’d been traveling hard.”

“His clothes looked mussed, and he had an odor on him as if he hadn’t showered for a while,” Godsey said. “There was dirt and dust on his feet and shoes.”

The Buick LeSabre that authorities believe Stanley stole from his sister-in-law after her death was found in terrible condition, with a window shattered, the front end smashed in and the front wheels twisted inward, officials said.

The car had been abandoned in the town of DeBeque, about 12 miles outside Parachute, after it apparently broke down on a rural gravel road in front of the home of the town’s volunteer fire chief, authorities said.

The DeBeque fire chief, Nick J. Marx, said he had opened all the windows at his house Saturday night because of the sweltering heat and discovered the car outside on the road. His dogs started barking, and Marx saw a battered car outside, while his son spotted a man with garment bag leaving the car and heading for the nearby highway.

Marx then called in the license plate and discovered the car was wanted in California.

Authorities in Colorado speculated that many miles of off-road driving accounted in part for the condition of the car. They also believe that Stanley may have fallen asleep at the wheel and hit something while driving through DeBeque.

Fountain Valley investigators, armed with a warrant, searched the car Tuesday to glean more clues as to where Stanley may have been, but they said little about what they found. Investigators said they expect to complete the search today and will then take the car back to Orange County.

“We’d all like to know where he has been, because there may be the likelihood that he has committed other crimes in the interim,” said Capt. De Nisi. “We’re all just breathing a heavy sigh of relief now that the guy is in custody. The potential for more violence was definitely there.”