On March 13, 1999, in San Luis Obispo, California, Aundria Crawford was reported missing by her mother. Aundria’s mother usually spoke with her daughter every day. She hadn’t heard from her since March 11. Aundria was a 20-year-old student from Fresno, California, who was attending Cuesta Community College in San Luis Obispo, California.
Investigators, who responded to her residence, determined that she was abducted from her duplex apartment sometime during the early morning hours of March 11. The point of entry into her apartment was determined to be through a small transom-type window. The police found blood on the floor suggesting that Aundria had been injured. Investigators determined that someone had taken a TV, VCR, tapes, and some CDs. The mother reported that Aundria’s 8-ball key chain was missing and that someone had locked her unit door.
Fig.1 Her disappearance was covered in the local news.
Fig.2 Investigators search her car at her home.
Fig.3 Aundria was a 20-year-old student who lived alone.
Fig.4 She loved to wear sweats and could usually be found with a pair of sunglasses pushed up on her forehead.
On March 16, 1999, Parole Officer David Zaragoza decided to check up on one of his parolees, Rex Krebs. Krebs was a 35-year-old convicted rapist and ex-con. The parole officer had read an article in the local paper about the abduction of Aundria Crawford. He recognized several similarities in the Crawford case that matched one of Krebs’ prior sexual offenses.
Parole Officer Zaragoza visited Krebs at his residence, which was a converted barn located in an isolated, rural mountain area of Davis Canyon. During the brief visit, Zaragoza noticed that Krebs was walking funny. When the parole officer asked why, Krebs told him that he fell off the retaining wall onto his woodpile and injured his ribs. Zaragoza didn’t believe the story and became more suspicious when he examined Krebs’ ribs and saw no signs of abrasions or external bruising. In fact, Krebs had injured his ribs while entering Crawford’s home through that small transom window. In order to get through the window, he had to arch his back and he ended up pulling his back muscles.
Zaragoza reported his suspicions to the task force investigators. Krebs’ name was on the list of sex registrants, but he had not been interviewed because he lived out of the city limits in a rural area of San Luis Obispo County.
Fig.5 Rex Krebs was interviewed by Investigator Larry Hobson at the San Luis Obispo Police Department.
Fig.6 Krebs crawled into Crawford’s apartment through a small transom window in the bathroom.
Fig.7 The police found blood on the floor suggesting that Aundria had been injured.
Fig.8 When Aundria confronted Krebs he punched her and banged her head into the floor.
On March 19, 1999, investigators from the task force and Parole Agent Zaragoza conducted a search of Krebs’ house. Under California law, a parole officer can search a parolee’s residence without a warrant if he suspects that there is a violation of parole. The parole officer and task force members also found an 8-ball key chain, minus the keys. This 8-ball key chain was similar in description to the key chain and keys that belonged to Aundria Crawford that her mother told police were missing.
On March 20, Krebs was arrested at 84 Lumber where he worked by Parole Agent Zaragoza for possessing a .22-caliber pellet pistol that looked like a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. This was a parole violation.
On March 21, 1999, Rex Krebs was interviewed by Investigator Larry Hobson at the San Luis Obispo Police Department. Hobson asked Krebs about the 8-ball key chain. Krebs told Hobson that when he was in Soledad prison working out in the iron pile, he found the 8-ball key ring and decided to keep it as a souvenir. What Krebs did not know is that Hobson had checked with prison authorities as to whether or not a prisoner could keep such an item. This type of item would be considered contraband and would have been taken away from Krebs during one of the many “shake-downs” at Soledad.
Fig.9 Rex Krebs’ house and the 8-ball keychain that belonged to Aundria.
Fig.10 The sofa where the rape took place.
Krebs gave permission to have his home and vehicles searched and stated he was willing to do whatever it took to prove that he was not involved. During the interview, Krebs was vague and evasive about his criminal history and claimed he had left all of that behind him when he was paroled from Soledad State Prison.
On March 24, Investigator Hobson interviewed Krebs again. Krebs again was extremely cooperative and told Hobson that he wanted to do whatever he could to prove his innocence. Once again, Krebs gave the task force investigators permission to search his house and all his vehicles. Krebs told Hobson that he was willing to assist him by viewing the crime scenes and providing information on the unknown suspect based on his life as a convicted sex offender. Krebs even volunteered to provide a “profile” of their suspect.
On March 24, investigators, pursuant to a search warrant, searched Rex Krebs’ house, his Ford pickup, and his Dodge sedan. During the search of Krebs’ Ford pickup, investigators noticed that the rear jump seat on the passenger side was missing and the carpet in the jump seat area had been cut out. The jump seat was later found in a storage room on the bottom floor of the house.
Fig.11 Krebs gave permission to have his home and vehicles searched.
Fig.12 Krebs’ residence was a converted barn located in an isolated rural mountain area of Davis Canyon.
The jump seat had been cleaned up. Krebs had told Investigator Hobson that he removed the jump seat and cut the carpet out after spilling oil on them. Investigators sent the jump seat to the State Department of Justice Lab in Fresno for further testing. There were a total of five search warrants executed in connection with this case.
The California Department of Justice (DOJ) lab advised the San Luis Obispo Police Department that it had, through DNA analysis, positively identified the blood found on the jump seat at Krebs’ house as the blood of Rachel Newhouse, another woman who was missing.
On April 21, Investigator Hobson confronted Krebs with the DNA evidence. Krebs became silent and asked Hobson to take him back to his cell. Krebs invoked his right not to talk with Hobson, but did not ask for an attorney. On April 22, Krebs was transported to the San Luis Obispo Police Department. When Investigator Hobson contacted him there for another interview, Krebs confessed and provided Investigator Hobson with the details of the kidnap, rape, and murder of the two coeds.
Following the lengthy confessions, Krebs led Hobson and the other task force investigators to Davis Canyon where he pointed out the two gravesites. Krebs had buried Aundria Crawford approximately 30 feet from the main door to his house.
Fig.13 The Investigators searched Rex Krebs’ Ford pickup.
Fig.14 The rear jump seat was missing, later found at Krebs’ property and containing bloodstains.
On April 23, 1999, the two decomposed bodies were recovered from the four-foot graves. Medical examination revealed that both of the coeds had died from asphyxiation. Krebs was into “hog-tying” his victims with a rope around their necks, pulling their feet up into the small of their backs.
Rex Krebs’ past rape conviction and similar MO certainly placed him in position as a possible suspect. The parole officer’s suspicion about Krebs was instrumental in identifying him as the obvious suspect when pursuant to his parole authority he located an item belonging to Crawford in Krebs’ home. Krebs became their prime suspect after investigators found a car seat with blood on it at his home. A subsequent DNA analysis of that blood on the seat was matched to Rachel Newhouse.
Rex Krebs admitted stalking Aundria Crawford for several days after seeing her in her driveway. He watched her from a garage behind her apartment with binoculars. He also climbed up onto her roof two or three times and watched her in her bedroom. He told Hobson that he felt more confident after getting away with the Newhouse kidnapping and felt the urge to rape again. He planned the attack based on his neighbor’s absence. He entered the duplex in the early morning hours at approximately 4 a.m.
He gained access by crawling into Crawford’s apartment through a small transom window in the bathroom. He was wearing a nylon stocking mask. He stated that he made some noise getting into the bathroom. When the victim opened the door and confronted him in her apartment, he punched her in the mouth and then, with more blows, knocked her unconscious by banging her head into the floor.
Fig.15 From the excavation.
Fig.16 Back. Ligature tied tightly around the waist/torso securing the wrist ties to the anterior body.
Fig.17 Blindfold placed about the head and secured over the eyes and nose.
Fig.18 The sweater she was wearing.
Fig.19 Left and right ankles bound together.
This time he had brought his “kit.” Krebs tied her up and then went to the bedroom where he got a pillowcase and placed it over her head. He told Hobson that he had decided he wanted to keep this victim for three or four days so he took three sets of clothing with him when he left the house. He used the victim’s keys to lock the house hoping no one would notice her missing. He later threw the keys into the hills around his house, but kept the 8-ball as a trophy. The police located the victim’s keys when Krebs pointed out the gravesites.
He also told the investigator that he had taken the VCR and tapes to throw the authorities off to make it look like a burglary. He told Hobson he couldn’t even use these appliances because he didn’t have regular electricity. His barn house used battery power. He stated he threw the items out along the road. Later on, police found and recovered this evidence.
Krebs then took his bound victim out to Davis Canyon in his truck to the same abandoned building near his home where he had raped and sodomized and strangled Rachel. Krebs raped and sodomized Aundria on the sofa at this location. He then hogtied her and gagged her and went back to his place to wait until his neighbor’s daughter went to work. Once the coast was clear, Krebs drove out to the abandoned house and retrieved his victim. He brought her back to the barn house where he raped her a second time in the bedroom. Krebs then put her on a bed and shut the door. Her mouth had been taped shut, and a pillowcase had been placed over her head. Her hands and feet were bound.
After putting Crawford in the bedroom, Krebs said that he passed out on the couch. Krebs told Hobson that while he was sleeping, he heard a noise. When he looked toward the bedroom, he saw the victim standing in the doorway. Aundria Crawford was untied and had managed to get dressed with one of the outfits that Krebs had taken from her apartment. Krebs stated that she began to walk out of the bedroom.
Fig.20 The binding of Aundria Crawford. Front view.
Fig.21 The binding of Aundria Crawford. Back view.
Fig.22 The binding of Aundria Crawford. Back view.
Fig.23 From the Tribune newspaper.
Krebs said that he became frightened when he saw Crawford looking at him. Krebs stated that the victim screamed and tried to escape, but he overpowered her and dragged her into the living room where he raped and anally sodomized her on the couch.
Krebs told Hobson that he had no intention of killing her before then, but now she had seen him. Krebs stated he knew what he had to do. He said that he had placed a blindfold over her eyes and that he killed her by strangling her with a rope. He then buried her bound body 23 feet from his home in a shallow grave.
Rex Allan Krebs was found guilty on all counts, including all special circumstances. The same jury heard the penalty phase of the trial to determine the sentence for Krebs. On May 11, 2001, the jury voted for the death penalty in lieu of life in prison without the possibility of parole. On July 20, 2001, Judge Barry T. LaBarbera sentenced Rex Allan Krebs to die in the State Prison at San Quentin, where he is on death row.
In 2019 California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order imposing a moratorium on the death penalty and granting temporary reprieves to all condemned inmates on death row. San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow is calling on Newsom to allow the execution of Krebs to occur. Rex Allan Krebs, inmate CDCR number D69844, is now 55 years old and awaits his unlikely execution at the San Quentin State Prison in California.
Fig.24 Rex Allan Krebs, inmate CDCR number D69844, is now 55 years old and awaits his unlikely execution at the San Quentin State Prison.
Fig.25 Aundria is forever missed by her family and many friends.
Fig.26 Aundria enjoyed horses, although her family couldn’t afford to buy her one. And she was a fan of country music.
Fig.27 She loved monster trucks. She and her friends would go out and do quarter-mile racing, until the police chased them off
Fig.28 Aundria Lynn Crawford was only 20-years-old.
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