Ex-Beatle's stalker found murdered

updated 1:20 p.m. ET Jan. 1, 2007

TRUCKEE, Calif. - A woman who pleaded no contest to trespassing at the Hawaii home of George Harrison was found dead in a blood-splattered sport utility vehicle, apparently the victim of a murder-suicide, police said.

Cristin Keleher, 34, served four months in jail after her arrest for entering Harrison’s house in Maui in December 1999. Prosecutors accused her of stalking the former Beatle.

After entering the home through an open sliding glass door, she cooked a frozen pizza, did her laundry and phoned her mother in New Jersey.

On Dec. 19, a hiker found the bodies of Keleher and Stanley Merchant, 48, near a highway north of Truckee.

Investigators said evidence shows Keleher was fatally shot outside the vehicle, then placed inside and driven a short distance. Investigators believe Merchant sat down next to Keleher’s body and shot himself in the head. Two 12-gauge shotguns were found next to him inside the vehicle.

In Hawaii, Keleher admitted she was in Harrison’s home without his permission but said she was feeling sick and was seeking shelter from the rain. She told the court she loved Harrison and never meant him any harm.

Keleher was arrested a week before Harrison was stabbed in the chest by an intruder in his mansion near London. Harrison, who suffered a collapsed lung in the attack, died of cancer in 2001 at age 58.

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