On Sunday morning Septmeber 25, police arrested Frank Felix, 25, of Sun Valley, Joshua Acosta, a 21-year-old U.S. Army mechanic based at Fort Irwin, and an undisclosed 17-year-old female on the suspicion of murder.
Two of the parent’s daughters, 6 and 9, were home when police arrived, with the younger calling 911, saying their parents had died.
Acosta, Felix and the girl were arrested after police had asked for the community and neighbors’ help to find Katlynn Yost, the couple’s 17-year-old daughter.
The two men appeared in court briefly on Tuesday Sept. 27. Prosecutors revealed Acosta and Felix entered the Yost’s household in the early morning.
Acosta shot all three victims, prosecutors claimed. Both were charged with three felony counts of murder with sentencing enhancements for the personal discharge of a firearm. The arraignment was postponed to Oct. 28.
On Tuesday, prosecutors did not charge the 17-year-old girl arrested in connection with the triple homicide. Law enforcement has declined to claim Yost was the arrested teen, citing state privacy laws for minors.
Friends and family held a candlelight vigil outside the Gilbert Street home Sunday night as they mourned the death of the three.
Neighbors described the Yost family as loving and caring, saying Christopher would often play with his daughters outside and work on neighbors’ cars.
The three accused in the killings have been tied to the furry community, a subculture admiring movies, comics and other art featuring fictional anthropomorphic animals.
Melinda Giles, a friend of Jennifer Yost’s met the family through the furry community as well as Acosta and Felix at furry events, but weren’t too familiar with the two men.
Felix had discussed his potential involvement in the murder on Facebook Message 6 days prior with friend, Cody Dunn, 22, under a pseudonym, Entey Felix.
“It’s just killing an animal,” Felix said.
Dunn took the message simply as a joke, unaware of Felix’s actual intent, but “freaked out” when he discovered that Felix actually had been arrested in the murders.
According to her Facebook and Twitter accounts, Katlynn Yost was an active member in the furry community, addressing herself as “Daydreamer.”
Furries, members of the fandom, take part in furry social events in their local community, such as conventions were they can dress up in full costume with other furries.
According to their website, SoCal Furs started with just a discussion group of about 600 members and grew with the use of social networking sites like Meetup, Yahoo Group and Twitter with the hopes of connecting with old and new furs.
Since these tragic events, the SoCal Furs have put a hold on their events until further notice.
Amy Rutherford, a member of the Yost Family, launched a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses and benefit the girls. The page’s description calls for “all the help they can get in this extremely tragic event.”
Boucher’s aunt, Jeanene Der Hovanisian, has also set up a GoFundMe page to support Boucher’s 5-year-old son, Ryker. The donations will be placed into a trust fund for Ryker, according to the page description.