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University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, April 29, 1992
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Jewelry jamboree
Ector Garza, Goodland freshman, browses through leather bracelets as Bili Domyki prepares to pack up at a jewelry sale sponsored by HIL
Julie Denesha/KANSAN
lift. Hilton will receive 20 percent of the sales Domsky made on campus.
He needed the sponsorship of a group company to sell the items at KU.
SEX, LIES AND MURDER
Two couples, entangled in infidelity, get caught in fatal love scandal
The Associated Press
SANTA ANA, Calif. - They were four star-crossed characters, trapped in a three-act tragedy of adultery, violence and money.
Rosie and Arturo Montes were high school sweet-hearts who married, started a family and lived modestly. He was a tree trimmer; she had a county job. Dirk and Lynn Houston owned a multimillion-dollar insurance firm and lived well.
Then Arturo Montes, 22, and Lynn Houston, 44,
became lovers.
Next, Dirk Houston was shot to death at work.
And finally, Arturo Montes and Lynn Houston — fearing, officials say, that they were under suspicion of arranging Houston's murder — killed themselves in a motel, overdosing on drugs and vodka
"It's a movie," said Dick Streza, Dirk Houston's attorney and friend.
The 37-year-old Dirk Houston, Streza said, was boisterous and church-going, a hard-worker known for fairness with employees and customers.
He met Lym Nottage in 1974, while he was still in college. Blond and 27, she told him her husband and children had died in an East Coast auto accident, friends and relatives told The Orange County Register.
Seven years ago, he found out she was divorced and that her ex-husband and children were alive. Lynn explained she lay to help her cope with the situation from her son and daughter, the newspaper said.
During their 17-year relationship, the Houstons developed few personal ties with others and kept relat-
"The last time I talked with him I told him," Dirk, I think I'm losing you," his mother, Marilyn Houston, told the Register. "And he said, 'Mom, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.'"
Then, Arturo Montes met Lynn Houston when he bid
To all appearances, the Monteses had a loving marriage — until recently. Aruto Montes was kind, a devoted father of two daughters (ages 3 and 4) and "so naive," his wife said.
"He would go out of his way when anybody asked him for a favor. He would never hurt anybody," she said. They moved to his parents' Santa Ana home to help care for the older couple.
murder)."
"That last day,he said Whatever happens.I had nothing to do with it (the murder) "
Rosie Montes
on a tree-trimming job last summer at her home in Laguna Niguel, Calif., about 45 miles south of Los Angeles.
Within weeks, Arturo Montes changed, his wife said. He grew quiet and stayed away from home. She confronted him with her suspicions: Was he having an affair? Yes, he said — with Lenn Houston.
Anangry Rosie Montes called Lynn Houston, but her accusation drew a calm denial. A month later, however, Rosie Montes called again.
"This time she was really angry. I said, 'You should consider you are twice his age.' Rosie Montes said. She didn't deny (the affair). She said 'If you guys have your problems, you should work it out between you.'
Last fall, Arturo Montes moved out and into an apartment near the Houston home.
Dirk Houston, meanwhile, told his father he was having marital problems. He also expressed concern for his safety, saying he was nearly run off the road several times in one week while bicycling. Roger Houston told the Register.
Three days before Christmas, Dirk Houston was four months to death in his unlocked cell. His wallet and $1,000 bill were found inside.
In the aftermath, Lynn Houston struggled to maintain the insurance firm she had helped her husband build, Streza said.
"She seemed like a grieving widow, without question. I spent time weeping with her, and praying with her. She had requested the prayer," he said.
Arturo Montes, too. was upset. Rosie Montes
recalled an emotional meeting with her husband in February. Arturo Montes, crying, told her he wanted to return home but had "some problems" to fix.
After his return, he vowed, they could have the big church wedding she had always wanted. Rosie Montes thought their lives were turning around.
On March 6, she said, he told her of Dirk Houston's murder.
"He told me the detectives were investigating him, and that he was her lover and they suspected him," she said. "He denied being involved and said, 'I feel like I'm living in a trap.'"
On March 20, he was scheduled to take a lie-detector test at the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
"I just had this awful feeling," she said. "He was telling me he was so sorry, he didn't want to hurt anybody. He said, 'Rosie, I'm going to take some pills."
"I told him, "You have to think of the girls, your family," she said. When he started to walk out, she offered to let him take her car. She tried to follow in another car, but lost him.
On that same day, Arturo Montes and Lynn Houston checked into a Banning motel in adjacent Riverside County. Lynn Houston's Mercedes-Benz was parked outside the room. They were found dead the next day by a motel housekeeper.
"It it looks like the heat was on, and they did it," said Richard Bogan, a Riverside County deputy coroner. "They took some pills, drank some vodka, turned on the TV, laid back and died."
But had they killed Houston?
Orange County sheriff's representative Lt. Bob Rivas said detectives did not have evidence to prove it. The department has refused further comment.
A polygraph test administered to Lynn Houston provided inconclusive results, according to Tom Goethals, a criminal defense attorney she hired her husband's death.
He said a $400,000 check, partial payment on one of Dirk Houston's two life-insurance policies, was mailed to her a day before she and Arturo Montes were found.
Arturo Montes '22-year-old widow still clings to her husband's claim of innocence.
"That last day, he said 'Whatever happens, I had nothing to do with it (the murder)," she said. "I believe him."
THE FIRST NAME IN DIGITAL AUDIO
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