Body identified as Rundle’s wife

Jen Lawson

Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 | 11:31 a.m.

The body of a woman found dumped along the side of a road in California has been positively identified as Shirley Rundle, a coroner's official said this morning, and Metro Police detectives have found what they believe to be the murder weapon.

Lassen County, Calif., Deputy Coroner Si Bollinger said this morning that dental records showed the body was that of Shirley Rundle. She died of blunt force trauma, Bollinger said.

Wednesday morning, Metro homicide detectives searched the home of William and Shirley Rundle in the 4700 block of Poppywood Drive for a third time and emerged less than a half hour later with a wooden baseball bat wrapped in a white sheet.

"We have information that causes to believe that is the murder weapon," Lt. Tom Monahan said when he came out of the house. He said William Rundle, who is being held in an Orlando, Fla. jail, is being cooperative with detectives and may have told where the bat could be found.

Detectives found the bat in an upstairs room. It will be tested at Metro's crime lab for evidence.

Rundle, 56, was arrested early Saturday at an Orlando, Fla. hotel after being on the run for two months. He is charged with killing his wife, Shirley Rundle, 63, in their home in August. Detectives found blood matching Shirley Rundle's on a chair during a previous search of the house.

Rundle is being held on federal flight charges, and he is expected to be extradited to Nevada after those charges have been addressed.

Now that William Rundle has been arrested, Monahan said detetcives will be able to devote more time to investigating the death of Rundle's mother, Willa Rundle, 87. She hasn't been seen since 1996, and police said Rundle had been spending his mother's Social Security checks.

After his arrest, Rundle told police his mother died that year, "but not by criminal means." Monahan said the circumstances surrounding her death are still unclear.

"Cops by our very nature are naturally suspicious, and homicide cops by our very nature are very suspicious," Monahan said.