{"slug": "arrest-made-in-1999-slaying-of-23-year-old-woman-found-near-california-golf", "title": "Arrest made in 1999 slaying of 23-year-old woman found near California golf course", "summary": "San Diego police arrested Christopher Creek, 52, on June 16 after DNA evidence linked him to the 1999 strangulation murder of 23-year-old Diane Ayres, whose body was found near Balboa Park Golf Course. Creek, who has a multi-state criminal record, pleaded not guilty on Thursday. The case had remained unsolved for over 25 years until advanced DNA testing identified Creek as a contributor to evidence including the victim's sock and swabs.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...A foursome of golfers was leaving the Balboa Park Golf Course on a fall evening back in 1999 when they spotted what appeared to be a body underneath a nearby shrub in a secluded turnout.\n\nIt was a young woman, unclothed except for a sock on her left foot. Diane Ayres, 23, had been strangled, her neck broken.\n\nFor more than 25 years, the discovery remained an [unsolved homicide.](/tag/cold-cases/) San Diego detectives tasked with solving cold cases repeatedly had evidence retested, looking for DNA that would point them toward a suspect.\n\nA promising result came back in 2023, pointing them to Christopher Creek.\n\nOn June 16, San Diego police arrested Creek, now 52, after he was released from a Georgia prison on unrelated charges. He was extradited and, on Thursday, pleaded not guilty to murder in San Diego Superior Court.\n\nAccording to court records, Creek has a lengthy criminal history dating back to the early 1990s spreading across several states, including California, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Nevada, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia.\n\nHis record includes convictions for auto theft, burglary, credit card fraud, forgery, possession of stolen property and reckless conduct by a person living with HIV.\n\nInvestigators said they pieced together a timeline for Creek before and around Ayres’ death. He had lived in the Northern California community of Ferndale but was traveling around the state from August through October 1999, befriending women and men he met in country western bars who would invite him to stay at their homes, according to court records.\n\nA pattern emerged: After a couple of days, Creek would disappear, along with the victims’ belongings or vehicles.\n\nPolice say Ayres was also a fan of country and western music and was known to frequent country western bars and would sometimes meet men there.\n\nShe lived with her grandparents in Poway but would also stay with her mother in an apartment near Balboa Park. Her mother told police the last time she saw her was Sept. 2, two days before her body was found.\n\nAfter her death, Ayres’ identity was unknown for two months, until police matched her name to her thumbprint through DMV records on Nov. 4. Police said her mother had reported her missing Oct. 25.\n\nAbout a decade after Ayres’ death, in late 2009, a homicide detective working on cold cases asked the crime lab to forensically test evidence collected from the case, including the sock recovered from her foot and swabs taken from the body during an autopsy.\n\nIn early 2010, additional testing was conducted on fingernail scrapings collected from Ayres and hair found on her body. No match was found.\n\nBut in July 2023, a cold case detective tried again — submitting a request for the lab to test the sock and swabs for DNA. This time, “unknown additional contributors” were located.\n\nA search of a national database led to the identification of Creek as a suspect, prompting investigators to check criminal records and look at other evidence, court documents say.\n\nIn October 2025, the San Diego Police Crime Laboratory confirmed DNA lab results identifying Creek as “a DNA contributor” on several pieces of evidence, including the victim’s sock, a vaginal swab and on the left breast, according to a declaration filed by police Detective Christopher Murray on June 2 in support of an arrest warrant.\n\n“Once Creek was identified as a person of interest in this investigation, detectives began researching his whereabouts during the timeframe of Ayres’ murder,” the declaration said.\n\nStarting in August of 1999, police found that Creek was befriended by women and at least one man whom he met in country and western bars and who invited him to stay in their homes before stealing from them, according to court records.\n\nOn Aug. 6, a woman in Sacramento County met Creek at a bar, and he stayed with her for four nights. On Aug. 10, she filed a police report accusing Creek of stealing a Ford Bronco SUV she had just purchased.\n\nA couple of weeks later, a woman in Ventura County filed a theft report on Sept. 1 with police, accusing Creek of stealing her $12,000 engagement ring, which he later pawned for $1,200.\n\nA few days after Ayres’ body was found in San Diego, a Temecula woman who said she had agreed on Sept. 13 to let Creek stay at her home “for a few months to find a job” came home two days later to find her stereo, video game console, CDs and photos were gone. She filed a theft report Sept. 15.\n\nOn Sept. 30, a man living in Chino Hills said he invited Creek to stay with him for a few days after they met at a saloon in Orange County. The next morning, he awoke to find Creek had left behind a Ford Bronco but allegedly had taken his white Chevy Silverado.\n\nThe next month, Chico police arrested Creek on suspicion of auto theft and other offenses.\n\nAccording to Georgia court records, Creek was incarcerated in 2016 and released in 2022. He re-entered prison in 2025.\n\nAccording to prosecutors, Creek was interviewed while he was in prison in Georgia. He told detectives he had never been to San Diego and denied knowing the victim. When he was told his DNA had been found on the victim’s body, he said, “I mean if you got DNA, but it’s, uh, whatever happened happened,” according to court records.\n\nSan Diego police said they worked closely with the FBI and the county District Attorney’s Office on the case.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/arrest-made-in-1999-slaying-of-23-year-old-woman-found-near-california-golf", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/26/arrest-made-in-1999-slaying-of-23-year-old-woman-found-in-balboa-park/", "published_at": "2026-06-26 15:39:44+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-26 16:06:21.701908+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-research"], "entities": ["Christopher Creek", "Diane Ayres", "San Diego Police", "Balboa Park Golf Course", "San Diego Superior Court", "Christopher Murray"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/arrest-made-in-1999-slaying-of-23-year-old-woman-found-near-california-golf", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/arrest-made-in-1999-slaying-of-23-year-old-woman-found-near-california-golf.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/arrest-made-in-1999-slaying-of-23-year-old-woman-found-near-california-golf.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/arrest-made-in-1999-slaying-of-23-year-old-woman-found-near-california-golf.jsonld"}}