A 28-year-old Joshua Tree woman was arrested last week, accused of being an accessory to the murder of a Murrieta man last May. Curtis Krueger, 30, a former Marine at the Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, is accused of bludgeoning Henry Stange, 54, in Stange’s garage on May 24 and then burying his body in a shallow grave in Joshua Tree National Park. Krueger’s girlfriend, Ashlie Stapp, 27, of Joshua Tree, is accused of helping him put Stange’s body into the vehicle which Krueger then drove to Joshua Tree National Park. Investigators say Stapp was romantically involved with Stange as well as with Krueger. Murrieta police arrested Krueger and Stapp August 29, but they were released from jail after the Riverside County District Attorney’s office failed to file formal charges against them. Murrieta police re-arrested Krueger December 7 on suspicion of murder, and he was booked into a Riverside county jail, with his bail set at $1 million. Ashlie Stapp was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory to murder with her bail set at $500,000.
