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Summarized by Kent Larsen
LDS Doctor Had Cache Of Illegal Weapons, But Nothing Connected To Attack On Business Partner
Sacramento CA Bee (AP) 15Mar00 D2
By Tom Harrigan: Associated Press Writer
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA -- When police searched the home of the late Larry
C. Ford, the LDS Church member and Biofem executive suspected in the
attack on his business partner, they did find a cache of 17 illegal
weapons, 40 to 50 more legal weapons and thousands of rounds of
ammunition. But the weapons were rusting and hadn't been used for
several years, leaving investigators without any connection between
the weapons and the attack on Biofem's James Patrick Riley. The
weapons did not include the gun used on Riley.
Ford, who committed suicide on March 2nd after it became clear that
police suspected him in the attempted murder of Riley, was an
obstetrician and AIDS researcher who was leading Biofem, the company
he founded with Riley, to a contraceptive that would protect women
from sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.
The search also discovered some suspicious substances, but they have
not yet been identified. Police also searched Biofem's offices,
taking away undisclosed "material" for analysis, "Some suspicious
substances were removed from the office," said Jim Donckels,
supervisor of the FBI's Santa Ana office. "We're not talking about
chemicals ... but they (the materials) could be hazardous." Police
evacuated Ford's Irvine neighborhood during the search, fearing that
the biochemical substances might be lethal or were booby-trapped.
The investigation only leaves more questions in the bizarre case,
covered last week by Mormon News [see:
http://www.mormonstoday.com/000312/D2Ford01.shtml/.
Investigators are looking at "financial gain" as the motive behind
the attack on Riley, but they have so far been unable to connect Ford
to that motive. Ford's lawyer said Tuesday that his late client
didn't stand to gain from Riley's killing because Riley's share of
the business would revert to his wife. "There's nothing in the
investigation that I've done that would suggest that there would be
any financial motive that Dr. Ford had," Ford attorney Stephen
Klarich said.
But Ford was connected to the alleged getaway driver, Dino D'Saachs,
who was a longtime friend and evidently Ford's tax accountant. But
D'Saachs has so far refused to cooperate with investigators. And
family attorney H. Bryan Card said the family knew about the
cannisters Ford hid around the property. "He collected weapons," Card
said. "He had a lot of guns. He had muskets, he had M-1s, hunting
rifles. He's a big game hunter. His house is filled with buffalo
heads, elephant's feet. He went on a lot of safaris." Card described
Ford as a law-abiding and deeply religious LDS Church member, "His
big vice was he used to sneak diet Coke in the garage," the attorney
said.
Meanwhile, Ford's son, Larry C. Ford, Jr., a student at BYU, felt
compelled by the statements in the press about his father to try and
set the record straight. "Everyone who knows him knows who he really
was," Ford Jr. said. "He was the most loving, giving and loyal person
- especially towards the poor and his family." He observed that his
father was a sort of adopted doctor for two LDS missions in
California, and treated the poor for free. He traveled to San Diego
to go to the temple once a week, according to Ford Jr.
While his death is puzzling to the family Ford Jr. says that the
family thinks it understands his logic, "I don't think it was
premeditated. . . . He basically did it out of love because he wanted
to protect his family from what was eventually coming." The family
believes that a police investigation would have been "two years of
hell, and our family would have been dragged through the mud." Rather
than put his family through that, Ford decided to end his life.
See also:
Y. student defends dad as loving, giving, loyal
Deseret News 13Mar00 D2
By Brady Snyder: Deseret News staff writer
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