Murder charged in girlfriend torture slaying

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'Silence of Lambs'-type chamber shocks cops


OAKLAND -- Murder charges were filed today against Earl Stefanson, the Oakland man who was arrested this week on suspicion of torturing and beating his girlfriend to death in a home where police say they found a chamber straight out of "The Silence of the Lambs."

Stefanson, a 41-year-old roofer, is accused of murdering 36-year-old Leslie Lamb of San Leandro, whom he dropped off at Highland Hospital the night of Aug. 26 after he allegedly beat her. She later died.

Stefanson, who was arrested Tuesday, is also charged with being an ex-felon in possession of a gun in connection with a revolver police found at his home. The felony conviction was for running a methamphetamine laboratory in Oroville (Butte County) in 1995, court records show. He was sentenced to nine years in state prison.

Stefanson initially told investigators he had found the badly injured Lamb in a car, police said. But homicide Sgt. Tony Jones said he had found discrepancies in Stefanson's account and obtained a search warrant of his home on the 3400 block of Coolidge Avenue in the Dimond District of East Oakland.

There, police said they had found a "very dark and frightening" torture chamber set up in a basement. Blood from Lamb and two other people was found in the home, authorities said. Police have not been able to identify who the two other people might be.

"It was frightening even for us," Jones said. "There were four police officers down there. We were all kind of sticking together. It was kind of like this 'Silence of the Lambs'-type setting," referring to the 1991 movie in which a psychopathic serial killer skins his victims.

Jones said Lamb had been "tortured in a very sadistic manner. I just imagine what Ms. Lamb must have been going through during these beatings."

Police said they feared other women may have been tortured in the home. "We know that he has a history of abusing women," Jones said. "It's important that we locate every woman he has ever attacked in his life."

Court records show that a former wife of Stefanson's obtained a restraining order against him in Fresno County in 1985. The couple had two children at the time, the records show.

Three neighbors of Stefanson's interviewed today said they had seen him yelling at women at the house.

"We saw him argue with other girlfriends," said one man, who asked not to be named because he feared retribution. "We know that he had a temper and could be quite angry."

Two other neighbors, who asked not be named for similar reasons, confirmed the man's account.

Police arrested Stefanson Tuesday night after he led them on a car chase through Oakland and Hayward, Jones said.

Stefanson and Lamb had been dating for several months, police said. That came as a surprise to Lamb's mother, who lived with her in San Leandro along with Lamb's 9-year-old son.

"I never met him and we never even heard about him before," said the mother, Anne Lamb. "I had no idea my daughter was seeing this person."

Leslie Lamb had moved back into the house where she was raised after losing her job last year as an administrative assistant at real estate firm in Berkeley, her mother said.

Anne Lamb said that the night her daughter was killed, "I thought she was going to see a friend out in Placerville. We had no idea she was going to see this person in Oakland.

"I hate to think of my daughter suffering at the hands of this evil person," said Anne Lamb, sobbing. "It's a nightmare. I am very upset and very angry that anyone would do such a thing.

"My daughter was happy, carefree person with wide smile that would light up a room," Anne Lamb said. "She didn't have any enemies. I am shock that this happened to her. Why would someone hurt her like this?"

Leslie Lamb's aunt, Kathy Van Atta, said Lamb was a single mother who lived "an average, normal life."

"There's nothing in her life that would ever make us think she would fall in with someone like this," Van Atta said. "The only good thing we can see is, thank God police made an arrest."