Woman Might Have Been Iced for ‘Religious Reasons,’ Suspect Says

Police are investigating a man who was found with a woman’s body packed in dry ice in a hotel room and who told a reporter that her death might have been connected to religion.

“Everything that happened was for religious reasons,” Stephen David Royds, 46, told The Orange County Register on Sunday in a brief interview from jail, where he is being held on drug charges. He repeated the statement four times, but refused to elaborate.

Detectives arrested Royds at the Fairmonts Newport Beach for investigation of selling and possessing cocaine, police Sgt. Evan Sailor said, according to the Associated Press. When searching his room No. 966 at a fancy hotel near John Wayne Airport late on Thursday, detectives found the body of Monique Felicia Trepp, 33, fully clothed inside a large Rubbermaid container.

An autopsy on Trepp's body was inconclusive, but the death does not appear to be a homicide. Authorities are waiting on toxicology results to determine the cause.

“It’s very odd. It’s not normal; it’s a little weird,” police representative Sgt. Evan Saolor told the Los Angeles Times.

Back in 2005, Trepp was charged with several felonies in Colorado, including possession of controlled substance with intent to sell, court records showed.

Besides Trepp’s body, police found porch swings, toy night-vision goggles, and large sake bottles.

Royd was booked Saturday afternoon at Orange County Jail in Santa Ana. He was scheduled to be arraigned on the drug charges Monday. He was not charged in connection with Trepp’s death.

Photo Credit: USA Today