New Year's Eve Murder: Man Chopped Up Women's Bodies, Hid Them And Then Burned Down Their House, Police Say

A real estate agent has been charged with a double murder and setting a house on fire on New Year’s Day in southern California, according to local reports. Christopher Ken Ireland has emerged as the main suspect of killing two women, whose bodies were found in a brush field in the well-heeled Newport Beach community. He was charged Wednesday.

Ireland, 37, is accused of killing Yolanda Holtrey and her friend, Michelle Luke, at Holtrey’s home in the city of Westminster in Orange County, located south of Los Angeles. After killing the two women at the home, Ireland is said to have dumped their dismembered bodies at a field near a Newport Beach shopping center before returning to the house and setting it on fire to destroy evidence.

Ireland was a licensed real-estate agent who had been an acquaintance of both of the women. He is believed to have attended a New Year’s Eve party at the home of Holtrey, 59, on the night of the killings.

Firefighters were dispatched to the home of Holtrey, 59, roughly 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles and 5 miles from Disneyland, around 5:30 a.m. local time Sunday to quell the blaze. Police said suspicions about foul play arose when neither Holtrey nor Luke, 49, could be found amid the wreckage after firefighters spent 30 minutes putting out the fire.

The bodies of the two women were discovered in a field in nearby Newport Beach Monday morning.

"There is no confirmed cause for the fire yet, but it's possibly arson," Orange County Fire Authority Captain Kurtz told local reporters.

Police utilized surveillance video of the area near the home to pinpoint Ireland.

Ireland has also been charged with intentionally and unlawfully [causing] permanent disability, disfigurement, and deprivation of a limb, organ and body member,” according to an Orange County Superior Court criminal complaint.

Local authorities said the cause of death and a motive for the incident have not been determined, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.