When Benjamin Roybal helped to uncover the dismembered body of a young woman who had been reported missing nearly 15 years ago, no one could have guessed he too would suffer a similar fate.
Roybal disappeared last month and, on April 6, police found his dismembered remains scattered at a neighbor’s San Bruno home. In a stunning twist, Roybal has gone from witness to victim as the unrelated, yet seemingly tangential, murder cases mark the last two times a dismembered body was discovered in San Mateo County.
Roybal was described as a treasure hunter of sorts, who was apparently well known in the local “storage wars” auction circuit. Along with a former business associate, in 2002 he coincidentally placed the winning bid to purchase a Daly City self-storage locker in which a woman’s decomposing remains had been kept for nearly three years, according to prosecutors.
Roybal would have been “witness #5” before the man accused of murdering the 22-year-old woman from China took a plea deal, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Fast-forward more than a decade later, the 77-year-old is now the victim of a grisly crime in which San Bruno resident David Stubblefield has been accused of using tear gas on, shooting and dismembering Roybal before attempting to destroy the remains with chemicals he researched online, according to prosecutors.
“Never say you’ve seen it all, because something strange or unique will come forward. To think that 15 years ago Mr. Roybal found a body that had been dismembered and only 15 years later he himself would meet his end dismembered? It’s the strangeness of life,” Wagstaffe said after pulling the old case file out of storage.
Now, Wagstaffe and San Bruno police are working to piece together what led to Roybal’s death.
Murder on the hill
The man whose home on the 3000 block of Pacific Heights Boulevard would be taped off as a crime scene was first reported missing by a friend March 11. More than three weeks later, San Bruno police arrived at Stubblefield’s home just up the street in a cul-de-sac overlooking Skyline College.
Once on scene, police allegedly found containers with body parts in Stubblefield’s home and backyard. A week later, dental records confirmed the remains were indeed Roybal, according to the Coroner’s Office.
The two men had a dispute over the price of a space heater that ended with 50-year-old Stubblefield using tear gas and allegedly shooting Roybal. He then went on to dismember the body, and use chemicals in an attempt to destroy the evidence, according to prosecutors.
The gruesome way in which Roybal was allegedly killed has eerie similarities to that of the woman whose body he discovered in the Daly City storage locker. Roybal and Kenslo Gary were the first to come across evidence that would unravel the story of a woman who had been reported missing in 1999.
Gary described himself as a former business associate of Roybal, a man he said grew up in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. Roybal was one of four siblings, didn’t have any children and as far as Gary knew, never married. Roybal spent his career as an engineer working under contract for the military, before retiring and getting into the storage locker auction circuit, Gary said.
He identified as Native American and was often seen dressed in a green army-style jacket, cowboy boots and clad in Southwestern-style jewelry, according to Gary and another auction-goer named Steve, who preferred not to give his last name. A familiar face at the “storage wars” in various facilities near San Francisco, Roybal was known to recount the story of how he once discovered a dead woman in a locker, they said.
“He had some real cool stories,” Steve said after hearing of Roybal’s death. “What are the odds?”
A rare occurrence
It was around 11 a.m. June 7, 2002 when Roybal first crossed paths with the aftermath of a man capable of killing and dismembering a human. Roybal and Gary spent $5 each to win “locker 8” at the former Shurgard Storage on King Street in Daly City. At the time, the two San Francisco residents were curious about what they thought was a locker full of car parts, Gary said.
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Looking over police reports from 15 years ago, Wagstaffe recounted the strange scene that unfolded once the duo got into the locker and found a cooler-type container wrapped in plastic. Gary began to cut open the container when he was bombarded by an overwhelming foul odor. Recognizing something suspicious was afoot, they immediately called police, according to records.
When police arrived, they found bags of kitty litter taped to the outside of the container. Officers began to cut away layers and layers of plastic and wrapped duct-tape before finding plastic bags stuffed inside. Eventually, the body of 22-year-old Xiu “Erica” Jiang was recovered. Bobby Tran had lapsed on making payments for the storage facility while locked up in another county, according to prosecutors.
Tran allegedly shot and dismembered Jiang after a failed scheme for the Chinese immigrant to marry a U.S. citizen. She had been considered a missing person until her body was discovered.
After a failed attempt to escape county jail, Tran eventually pleaded no contest to manslaughter in 2006. He remains in a Solano County state prison where he is serving 30 years to life, according to prosecutors.
Roybal and Gary were slated to testify, but Tran took the plea deal just as jury selection began, Wagstaffe said. Attempting to destroy remains by dismembering a body is not something prosecutors encounter often, Wagstaffe noted as his office prepares to prosecute the new case.
From past to present
Over the years, Gary said he’s preferred not to dwell on the incident, he rarely speaks of it and doubts many knew he was even involved. Roybal on the other hand, apparently wasn’t as tight-lipped.
Gary said the last time he saw Roybal was at an auction a few months back, although it had been several years since the two worked together.
“It was sad to hear something like that happened to anybody. It’s just one of those things, you never know what’s going to happen in life,” Gary said.
Roybal would attend various Bay Area flea markets where he would sell some of the items he bought in the lockers. But it was the thrill of the treasure hunt, the storage auctions, that Roybal seemed to enjoy most, Gary said.
“I think it gave him something to do,” Gary said. “And it gave him some camaraderie to go to the auction and joke around with people and socialize, I think that was his main thing.”
Steve, who also knew Roybal from the auctions, said he was shocked to hear how the alleged murder unfolded.
“Isn’t it ironic that he’s the guy that bought that locker years ago? That’s the strangest thing. … He was a good guy that wouldn’t hurt anybody,” Steve said. “It’s just too freaking strange of a coincidence.”
Wagstaffe said the world may never truly know exactly what words were exchanged between Roybal and the neighbor suspected of killing him. Stubblefield is being held on $10 million bail as he faces charges of murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm, using tear gas and destroying evidence.
He was assigned to the private defender program and slated to return to court next Monday, April 24, for arraignment and to enter a plea, according to prosecutors.
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