Remains May Be Those of Fugitive in Killing of Producer : Crime: Bones found in the desert are believed to be those of a bodyguard who also is suspected of murdering his girlfriend and the movie maker’s son and father.

Sun-bleached bones believed to be those of fugitive Robert Michael Allen, accused of gunning down a Hollywood producer and his son at a Culver City intersection in 1991, were discovered in the desert north of Twentynine Palms by hikers, Culver City police said Wednesday.

The remains were found Tuesday, scattered alongside the bones of Allen’s girlfriend, Susan Lynn Calkins, 28, who was reported missing three days before the shooting, Police Sgt. Hank Davies announced at a news conference.

Davies said that Allen, 31, apparently “snapped” when his boss, producer Roland Jon Emr, 45, cut him out of a deal to produce a biographical movie about actor James Dean. Davies theorized that Allen had committed suicide in the desert after having killed Emr; Emr’s son, Roger, 20, and father, Arthur, 71, and Calkins.

The discovery of the bones ends a nationwide manhunt for Allen, who had often bragged he could “disappear” if he wanted to, Davies said. Allen had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List.

Evidence supporting the Culver City Police Department’s conclusion is strong, but there are a few loose ends.

The coroner has yet to officially identify the remains as Allen’s. No car was found at the site, leaving a question as to how Allen got there.

But police said they are confident they have their man. Calkins’ remains have been positively identified through dental records. The three hikers who found them also found a duffel bag containing two guns and a note with Allen’s mother’s name and phone number. Laboratory tests showed that one of the guns was the one used to kill Roland, Roger and Arthur Emr, Davies said.

Roland Emr had hired Allen as a bodyguard nine months before the shooting. Allen appeared well-qualified for the job. An expert marksman, he had studied anti-terrorist techniques at the Academy of Corporate Security and Private Investigation in Miami, operated by former Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy. He also had owned private investigation companies in Arizona and Washington state.

Emr had been working with film writer Alan Hauge to produce the James Dean movie. Hauge had obtained the rights for the movie from Dean’s heirs in 1988.

Apparently, according to Davies, Emr at some point offered to give Allen a cut. Allen had bragged to friends that he stood to make $12 million on the deal.

Emr, however, had a checkered financial past. At the time of his death, he was the target of lawsuits filed by investors claiming that he had bilked them.

According to Davies, there were several points of dispute between Emr and Allen. One was that Emr apparently owed Allen money for bodyguard services. Another was that Emr apparently turned down a major investor in the Dean film, putting the project in jeopardy and angering Allen. As things deteriorated, Emr fired Allen.

Allen had to give up renting his Hermosa Beach house and sold his belongings. Meanwhile, Susan Calkins was trying to break off her relationship with him.

“At that point, he pretty much blamed everything that was wrong in his life on Emr,” Davies said.

Calkins, a former Playa del Rey waitress, and Allen left town over the weekend of July 4, 1991. Police say Allen shot Calkins and her dog, and buried both in a shallow grave off California 62, about 20 miles north of Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County.

Then, according to Davies, Allen began a search for Emr. He picked up a friend and drove to Arthur Emr’s home in a suburb of Phoenix, but Roland Emr was not there.

“Rather than waste a trip, he murdered Arthur Emr,” Davies said. The father was shot five times in the back of the head while seated in his study. Police believe he was killed July 10.

At 4 p.m. on July 11, police say, Allen found Roland Emr at his rented studio space in Culver City. Allen followed as Roland and Roger Emr left the facility in a car along with Roland Emr’s mother, Renee, and Roger’s friend, Susan Fellows. When they stopped at a traffic light at Slauson Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard, Allen pulled alongside.

According to police, Allen fired 11 times from a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, killing both men. The car rolled through the intersection until a policeman jumped in and applied the brakes. Emr’s mother, Renee, and Roger’s friend, Susan Fellows, who were uninjured in the back seat, later identified Allen as the gunman.

Soon afterward, Davies theorized, Allen returned to where he had buried Calkins and committed suicide.

According to police, Allen left a suicide note at Calkins’ Manhattan Beach apartment that spoke of “doing a job and not coming back alive.”

Police also said the friend who had driven with Allen to Arizona told them that Allen had confessed to killing Calkins and leaving her body in the desert. “He had made statements that if he couldn’t have her, nobody else could,” Davies said. “We are considering the case solved unless something else comes up,” Culver City Police Chief Ted Cooke said.