Search Fails to Find Engagement Ring of Slain Deputy’s Fiancee

BUENA PARK — About 50 police officers and volunteers searched a stretch of the Artesia Freeway on Friday for the engagement ring belonging to the fiancee of a slain Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, creating a massive traffic jam but finding nothing.

Police believe that the two men accused in the execution-style killing of Deputy Shayne York, 26, on Aug. 14 may have thrown the ring away hours later as they were being arrested on the freeway.

Using metal detectors, the searchers on the westbound freeway between Beach Boulevard and Valley View couldn’t find the ring.

Buena Park Police Lt. Tom Lucenti said the ring, custom-made by a jeweler who advertised in the Sheriff’s Department’s monthly magazine, “has value as a piece of evidence, and it also has monetary value. But it also has important emotional value for Deputy York’s fiancee.”

York and his fiancee, Jennifer Parish, 24, who is also a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, were at a Buena Park hair salon when two men allegedly stormed in and demanded wallets and valuables.

While going through York’s wallet, they found his deputy’s badge and ordered him to lie on the floor, face-down, police said. One of them shot York in the back of the head. He died Saturday after he was removed from life support equipment.

Andre Willis, 30, and Kevin Boyce, 27, described by police as Compton gang members, were arrested several hours later after a witness gave police a description of the getaway car after a second holdup at Lamppost Pizza in Yorba Linda.

Police on Friday also searched the pizza parlor for the ring without success.

They did find “one piece of physical evidence linking the suspects to the Lamppost robbery” at the California Highway Patrol weigh station at Weir Canyon Road and the westbound Artesia Freeway, Sgt. Ken Coovert said. He declined to elaborate.

Caltrans officials said the freeway search required the closure of the right lane, the Knott Avenue offramp and the Beach Boulevard onramp from 10 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. The closures resulted in monumental traffic jams on the westbound Artesia and southbound Santa Ana freeways, said Caltrans spokesman Paul King.

Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.