San Diego police arrest suspect in 1999 Balboa Park murder

San Diego police arrested Christopher Creek on June 16 and tied him to the 1999 killing of Diane Marie Ayres. The San Diego Police Department updated its cold-case bulletin for Ayres on June 25. Creek was found at Dodge State Prison in Chester, Georgia, then extradited to San Diego on June 23 and booked into Central Jail.

Ayres was 23 when her case began. She left her apartment on September 2, 1999, planning to go out for the evening and never came home. She lived with her mother at 3036 Hawthorne Street in Golden Hills and was described by police as 5-foot-4, 102 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair. Two days later, officers and golfers found her nude body in a remote section of Golf Course Drive in Balboa Park. The San Diego County Medical Examiner determined that she had been strangled.

A renewed review of the forensic evidence collected in the original investigation produced the break. Detectives with the San Diego Police Department Cold Case Unit worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office as they moved the case forward. The Cold Case Team was created in 1995, and Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg said San Diego County still has about 2,000 to 3,000 unsolved homicides.

Creek is 52 and has felony theft convictions in Texas, Georgia and California. He was charged with first-degree murder and pleaded not guilty at his initial court appearance. He was being held without bail, and Ayres’ mother was too distraught to attend court.

Carole Ayres said it was “nice that it’s finally been solved,” though she questioned why it took so long.