L.B.P.D. DETECTIVES ARREST SUSPECT IN 1977 COLD CASE HOMICIDE
8/31/2012
 
  
On December 27, 1977, officers from the Long Beach Police Department (L.B.P.D.)
were dispatched to the 200 block of East 21st Street to assist members of the Long
Beach Fire Department, who had found the body of a female who had been the victim of
a homicide. It wouldn’t be for another 34 years that the suspect in the crime was finally
identified and held accountable, thanks to grant funding and advances in DNA
technology.

Homicide detectives who responded at the time conducted an investigation into the
murder, and identified the victim as 17-year-old Shelley H. The victim had also been
sexually assaulted, and the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office determined her cause
of death to be strangulation. Detectives collected evidence, canvassed the area,
interviewed neighbors and family of the victim, and followed up on the information they
discovered, but were still unable to identify the suspect.

Forensic specialists who processed the scene obtained partial fingerprints, and the
Coroner’s Office also collected biological evidence, which was carefully preserved at the
time in hopes that it would be useful in the future.
 
  
In 2008 and 2009, the L.B.P.D. was the recipient of federal grant funds provided by the
National Institute of Justice (NIJ), to help solve cold cases through advances in DNA
technology. The funding allowed the L.B.P.D.’s Cold Case Unit to focus on unsolved
homicides in which biological evidence was collected and preserved, but had not yet
been analyzed with the latest DNA testing methods. 
  
 
  
Utilizing this funding, Cold Case Unit detectives regularly conduct detailed research into
unsolved homicides and undetermined deaths going as far back as the early 1970’s.
Cases with biological evidence suitable for DNA analysis are identified, and the grant
funds cover the research, as well as the DNA testing of these cases. 
  
 
  
Investigators located the carefully preserved biological evidence in this crime, and
submitted it for analysis. A profile was identified and submitted for a search in the DNA
data bank, and in October of 2011, a match to an individual named Martell Chubbs was
returned. 
  
 
  
Investigators learned that Suspect Chubbs was 18 years old and lived West Long Beach
at the time of the murder. He was not suspected of being involved in the crime until
investigators received the DNA match, which prompted them to re-contact witnesses,
and renew the investigation. During their research of Martell Chubbs, investigators
learned he had been arrested numerous times since the murder, and had served a

 lengthy prison sentence for rape and assault with deadly weapon. They also learned that
he had been released and was currently living in Antioch, California. 
  
On August 22, 2012, Long Beach Police Detectives, with the assistance of the Contra
Costa County Sheriff's Department, arrested 53-year old Martell Chubbs in Benicia,
California, for the 1977 murder of Shelley H. On August 24, 2012, homicide detectives
presented the case against Suspect Chubbs to the Los Angeles County District
Attorney's Office, and he was charged with one count of murder with special
circumstances, one count of burglary, and one count of rape. Suspect Chubbs remains
in jail without bail.