News Wire

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Grover Beach man for the murder of Larry Bross, a 90-year-old Oceano resident who was killed in his home during January 2019, according to authorities.

David James Krause, 41, faces a second-degree murder charge for the alleged killing. Krause was already in SLO County Jail on an unrelated charge when detectives arrested him on April 8.

Krause has two prior felonies on his record related to residential burglaries. He was a “very loose acquaintance” of Bross’s, according to SLO County Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth.

“I can’t go into detail,” Dobroth said at an April 8 news conference announcing the arrest and charge. “They had met, and they were, in my words, very loose acquaintances.”

SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said that an “extensive investigation” into the homicide ultimately uncovered “forensic evidence which clearly identified the suspect as being responsible for the crime.” He said Krause quickly became a person of interest in the case. He did not comment on a potential motive.

“Essentially, it came down to a combination of witnesses and physical evidence,” Parkinson said, and added: “This was a single person. We have no evidence to suggest anybody else is involved in this.”

A community activist and retired history teacher, Bross lived on the 1400 block of Strand Way, which borders the Oceano Dunes. A concerned neighbor discovered his body in his home on Jan. 24, 2019. Investigators said Bross died of “multiple chop force traumatic injuries.” While no murder weapon was recovered, Dobroth described it as likely being a “hammer-like instrument.”

In January of this year, the Sheriff’s Office asked for the public’s help in locating a “friend or acquaintance” of Bross’s who was observed visiting him two days before his body was found.

The Bross murder was the first of six homocides to hit SLO County in 2019. Parkinson said that his office has now solved all six of those cases, which have led to arrests and pending charges. ∆