After Huntington Beach killings, police try to connect the dots

It was early afternoon Tuesday when Huntington Beach police received a chilling call: Someone walking through a neighborhood park thought they had seen two dead bodies.

When they arrived, just minutes later, police found two men dead, an apparent murder-suicide. One of them, they later learned, was wanted 400 miles away in connection with the gruesome deaths of two relatives found inside a burning home.

Now, police are trying to figure out how, and why, a 32-year-old man wanted in the slayings of his uncle and grandfather in Sacramento ended up dead in an Orange County city park frequented by homeless people.

Abraham Felmley, 32, had been released from state prison earlier this year after serving time for a parole violation. Felmley had earlier been paroled after serving time for a domestic violence conviction, said Sgt. Jason Ramos of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.

Family members told detectives he was a transient who sometimes camped along rivers. They said he had a drug problem and strained relationships with some family members.

But so far no one has been able to point to a particular event that might have triggered the violence unleashed this week, Ramos said.

In Sacramento County, authorities said they knew something was very wrong soon after they arrived at a house fire on Monday.

Firefighters had been called at about 11 a.m. to the quickly growing fire at a small, wood-paneled home in the southern part of the county. They rushed in looking for an elderly man who they’d been told might be inside, said Capt. Chris Quinn, a spokesman for Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

But when the fire grew too intense, they were forced to retreat. Later, as the blaze was brought under control, they searched the house.

Inside the home with an American flag flying out front they found the bodies of Dennis Felmley, 62, and his father, Chesley Felmley, 84. Authorities said both men had suffered violent injuries not related to the fire. A gun was missing from the home.

Police believe Abraham Felmley drove south hours later toward Merced, traveling in a white Toyota truck that belonged to one of the victims.

Felmley, police said, apparently spotted a man fishing near Highway 152, got out of the truck and demanded the man’s phone and the keys to his car, a 1992 green Toyota Camry.

From there, Felmley continued heading south. Why he ended his journey in Huntington Beach is unclear, though public records show he may have registered a business at an apartment in the city several years ago.

Also unclear is Felmley’s relationship to Robert Andres Duran, 49, of Huntington Beach, the man he is believed to have killed in Bartlett Park before turning the gun on himself, police said.

Felmley and Duran’s bodies were found in a heavily wooded section of the park, located off bustling Beach Boulevard and known locally as a homeless gathering spot. A gun was found nearby and the Camry was parked within easy walking distance.

Felmley was released on parole from state prison in April, authorities said. Court records in Sacramento show he was charged 14 years ago with illegal possession of explosives. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to theft with a prior conviction in Orange County.

On Tuesday, before learning he was already dead, prosecutors in Sacramento filed murder and arson charges against Felmley.

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com