The normally subdued and ’safe’ community of Faria Beach, near Santa Barbara, was turned asunder when residents, Brock and Davina Husted, were brutally murdered in their home May 20, 2009.  Since Davina Husted was pregnant at the time, it is considered a triple homicide.  According to the Los Angeles Times, “the slayings occurred after the Husteds’ 9-year-old son, watching TV, saw a man in a black motorcycle helmet come through an open door from the family’s seaside terrace into their living room.  The boy told investigators he saw the man confront his mother, who was six months’ pregnant, in the kitchen.  His parents died in another room as he and his 11-year-old sister fled to a neighbor’s home.”  The murderer’s motive remains unknown.

Several months later in September 2009, 20-year-old security guard Joshua Graham Packer was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery at a Santa Barbara gas station.  He submitted to DNA testing which, after cross-referencing the information via criminal databases, led to a match from DNA discovered at the Husted’s residence. This revelation was possible thanks to the 2004 passing of Proposition 69, which mandated DNA samples from convicted felons be entered into an FBI tracking system. Last year, the proposition’s scope was widened to include samples from all those arrested on felony charges.  In January 2010, Packer was released from the Santa Barbara County Jail on $115,000 bail for the gas station robbery, but was again arrested this past Sunday on suspicion of the Husted murders. He is now in custody at the Ventura County Jail, with a $2.2 million bail. He failed to enter a plea on Tuesday, and a preliminary hearing set for today has been postponed.  Lady Justice will bring you the latest developments from this tragedy.