Suspect arrested in 2019 killing of 90-year-old activist from Oceano
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a suspect in the homicide of an Oceano activist who was found dead at his home in 2019.
At a news conference on Friday morning, Sheriff Ian Parkinson said his office identified David Krause, 41, of Grover Beach as the suspect in the killing of Lawrence “Larry” Bross, 90, a retired history teacher and longtime community advocate.
Krause was formally charged with a count of murder Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned in San Luis Obispo Superior Court next week.
Bross’ body was discovered at his home in the 1400 block of Strand Way in Oceano Jan. 24, 2019. He died from “multiple chop force traumatic injuries,” the Sheriff’s Office said at the time.
The criminal complaint alleges Krause used a deadly weapon in commission of the killing, described only as a “blunt force object.” Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth elaborated at the news conference Friday that the weapon was a “hammer-like” object.
Krause was already in custody at San Luis Obispo County Jail on unrelated charges when detectives arrested him on suspicion of the alleged murder Wednesday.
Long investigation ends in arrest of a murder suspect
The investigation spanned more than two years. Bross’ killing was one of six homicides in unincorporated San Luis Obispo County in 2019, and Parkinson said Friday that with Krause’s arrest, each of those murders have now been solved.
“We have very dedicated detectives. Through their perseverance, we are able to identify and arrest the person responsible for this heinous crime,” Parkinson wrote in a news release.
At the news conference Friday, Parkinson said the Sheriff’s Office identified Krause as a person of interest early on but wasn’t able to act until recently.
He said the tipping point in the investigation came when DNA evidence “clearly identified the suspect.”
“It’s not what you believe. It’s what you can prove,” Parkinson said. “This case was extremely detailed and extremely time-consuming.”
The Sheriff’s Office has not yet identified a motive in the case, and officials at the news conference would not describe what the two men’s relationship was. Parkinson said that though Grover Beach was Krause’s primary city of residence, he was living in various different locations at the time of Bross’ killing.
Court records show a lengthy criminal history of mostly low-level misdemeanor offenses dating back to at least 2016, until was charged March 12 with felony vandalism.
Dobroth, the assistant district attorney, said the evidence supports a charge of second-degree murder, meaning the killing is not believed to be premeditated.
Krause is in custody at San Luis Obispo County Jail, where he’s being held without bail.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on the murder charge April 15.
Larry Bross was a longtime community advocate
Bross, known as Larry, was a retired history teacher who lived in the home he called his “escape cabin” on Strand Way since 1969, according to New Times archives.
He was also a longtime advocate for the community of Oceano, Tribune archives show. He led a protest walkout of a federal government workshop about offshore oil and pushed for limits on off-road vehicles on the Oceano Dunes for decades.
In 2010, he successfully appealed the county’s attempt to sell 584 acres it owns in the park to the state.
“I love Oceano, and I love this beach,” Bross told the Santa Maria Sun in 2017. “It just bothers me that we can’t have the best for all.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 10:38 AM.
