AWOL Sailor Arrested in Slayings of 2 Sisters

A 21-year-old sailor arrested Thursday in the rape-slayings of two Linda Vista teen-agers was absent without leave from the 32nd Street Naval Station, where he was awaiting a bad conduct discharge.

Ralph Joseph Johns was arrested in a house on 42nd Street in Southeast San Diego by police responding to a tip. He is being held at County Jail downtown on suspicion of rape, murder and other charges in connection with the Nov. 8 knife slayings of Tina Marie Cvengros, 18, and her sister, Lori Ann, 15.

Johns was declared AWOL when he failed to report to the Transient Personnel Unit at the base after serving 45 days in the brig.

He had been sentenced to the brig Nov. 27 after being court-martialed for “seven minor unauthorized absences” and passing $1,143 worth of bad checks, Navy spokeswoman Julie Swan said. Johns was assigned to the transient unit to await processing of his bad conduct discharge.

Johns, a Florida resident who joined the Navy in April, 1982, had been assigned as a maintenance worker at Miramar Naval Air Station.

Detective Larry Lindstrom said Friday that Johns had met the slain teen-agers through a former girlfriend who had lived with the Cvengros family during the summer. “In talking to a lot of people, we were able to establish his (Johns’) relationship with the family and the girls,” Lindstrom said.

The nude bodies of the two girls were found in separate bedrooms in the Cvengros home Nov. 8 by their mother. Each had been stabbed repeatedly.

David Cvengros, 13, was also stabbed but survived by playing dead. The boy had been forced to perform oral sex with the assailant, police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Tina Marie’s 2-year-old daughter was found unharmed in the home after the killings.

In addition to the murder and rape counts, Johns was being held on suspicion of having oral sex with a person under 14, robbery, and possession of drugs.

Johns will be arraigned Wednesday and is being held without bail.