Man Slept With Girlfriend’s Corpse ‘Because He Loved Her,’ Guy Beaten With Guitar at Concord BART Station, Pot Farm Starts House Fire

By Genevieve Bookwalter   

Welcome to the daily roundup of top Patch stories from the greater Bay Area.

The big news around the region today, Friday, included the ongoing trial of a Santa Cruz man who allegedly killed his girlfriend and slept with her corpse for two weeks. From the story on Santa Cruz Patch:

“John Clauer, 63, loved the 30-year-old woman he kept dead in his bed for two and a half weeks because he couldn't face the fact that she was dead, defense attorney Zach Schwarzbach told a Santa Cruz jury in his closing statement Friday.”

“Schwarzbach read a letter Clauer wrote Stearns, his companion of several years, telling her he loved her and wanted her to come home and stay sober.”

"How does any of us respond to the death of a loved one?" Schwarzbach asked the eight-woman, four-man jury. "There's no script. There may have been better choices, but it's hard to say what's right and what's wrong in dealing with a loss."

Other top headlines around the greater Bay Area include:

Man Beaten With Guitar at Concord BART Station

Max Wade: Life in Prison for Attempted Murder

Compost Spilled on Roadway Near Healdsburg

Fake Lotteries, Phony Jailings and Other Scams Target Petaluma Seniors

Crowd, Waves Swell Gnarly at Surf Contest

30th Spare The Air Alert Called for Saturday

Man Killed in Los Gatos Hwy 17 Crash ID'd

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