CHP Dispatcher Arrested in Ex-Girlfriend’s Slaying

A California Highway Patrol dispatcher killed his former girlfriend, stuffed her remains into a cardboard box, dumped it in a ravine and set a fire to hide the evidence, Glendale police alleged Friday.

Anthony Roy Shivers Sr., 29, of Studio City, was being held in the Glendale city jail Friday on suspicion of murdering Jeanette Cohen, 28, of Glendale, who was reported missing Monday by family members.

Shivers has not confessed to any crime, nor has he been charged, Glendale police spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian said. The case will be turned over to Los Angeles County prosecutors Monday, police said.

Glendale police say they discovered the bloody 2-by-3-foot box about 100 feet down the slope of a remote, brush-covered ravine off Santa Susana Pass Road at about 4 a.m. Friday.

They believe the box contains the remains of Cohen, but an autopsy will be needed to identify them.

The box was plastered with duct tape and hidden in bushes. It was a few feet from the site of a small fire that had been extinguished by Ventura County firefighters the previous Sunday, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Rod Mendoza.

At the time, the fire was not thought to be suspicious, and apparently none of the firefighters noticed the box. Arson investigators were called out to the scene Friday to search for new evidence.

The scrub-covered ravine where the box was found is between Chatsworth and Simi Valley, near Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers camped in the 1960s.

Officers were led to the box by evidence recovered during a search of Shivers’ home late Thursday, which they believe connected him to the fire set near the box on Sunday, Keuroghelian said. Authorities declined to say what the evidence was.

The fire scorched only a few square yards of bushes and didn’t touch the box, but “we believe the fire was [intended] to destroy the box,” Keuroghelian said.

Other details of Cohen’s fate are unclear, he said, adding: “We are still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.”

Shivers is a former boyfriend of Cohen’s. Friends said they dated for about eight months and broke up about two weeks ago.

They said Shivers ended the relationship, in part because he knew Cohen was about to break up with him.

A civilian employee of the CHP, Shivers has worked in the Los Angeles communications center for about six years, said CHP Sgt. Ernie Garcia. He has been relieved of his duties pending formal dismissal proceedings, Garcia said.

Police said Shivers has a 6-year-old son, who lives with his mother.

Cohen was last seen Aug. 8 by another former boyfriend, who consoled her at her house about the recent breakup with Shivers.

Family members grew worried after Cohen didn’t show up for a wedding shower Sunday for her mother, who has planned a second marriage Sept. 6.

Friends of Cohen’s said Friday that Shivers had attended the news conference the family held Wednesday to appeal for help in the search for Cohen. They said Shivers didn’t speak but stood in back wearing sunglasses in a crowd of other acquaintances and onlookers.

Friends described Cohen, who grew up in Glendale, as an avid racquetball and softball player who was devoted to her family and loved her job selling advertising time on television and radio broadcasts.

Cohen also enjoyed traveling, and recently visited Jamaica.

The ravine where the box was found containing what are believed to be her remains is so steep that Ventura County firefighters had to haul the box out of the ravine using a gurney attached to a boom.

They then transferred the unopened box and its contents to Los Angeles County coroners, who will conduct an autopsy.

Times staff writer Jill Leovy wrote this story from reports by Steinman in Glendale and Folmar in Box Canyon.