Huntington Beach Man Arrested In Slayings Of Two Women

WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) — Police say the bodies of two women have been found near a shopping mall and that a Southern California man has been arrested in connection with their deaths.

The Orange County Register reports (http://bit.ly/2iJ4U31) that 37-year-old Christopher Ken Ireland, of Huntington Beach, was booked Monday on two counts of suspicion of murder in the deaths of 59-year-old Yolanda Holtrey and her 49-year-old friend, a woman whose name wasn't immediately made public pending notification of her family.

Officials didn't say how the women were killed but police began an investigation Sunday after officers were called to assist firefighters who had extinguished a suspicious fire at a Westminster house owned by Holtrey.

Westminster Police Cmdr. Cameron Knauerhaze says the three were acquaintances.

Knauerhaze says the bodies of Holtrey and her friend were found Monday near the Pavilions shopping center in Newport Beach.