LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff's Office has released the identity of the man whose body was found in a pond on the Hidden Valley Lake golf course last month, confirming he was the third suspect in a break-in at a nearby restaurant.



Billy Vassiliou, 45, of Martinez, was identified after an extensive forensic review that officials said was necessary due to his body's state of decomposition.



Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said the autopsy determined that Vassiliou's cause of death was drowning.



Authorities said Vassiliou and 44-year-old Vallejo resident Glenn Anthony Ramirez attempted to steal the ATM machine in Mulligan's Bar at the Greenview Restaurant in Hidden Valley Lake early on the morning of July 30, as Lake County News has reported.



Hidden Valley Lake Security Officer Davis Fox and Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Walter White, who had been in the area on another call, halted the burglary while it was in progress at around 4:30 a.m., according to the Hidden Valley Lake Association.



Ramirez and Vassiliou both fled, with Fox and White capturing Ramirez. However, Vassiliou got away from them, running back across the golf course toward Spyglass Road, the association reported.



Ashley Lorraine Meyers, 23, was arrested later that morning at Twin Pine Casino in connection to the case, officials said. Officials said she was found in possession of burglary tools as well as Vassiliou's driver's license.



The District Attorney's Office said Ramirez is charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, use of an acetylene torch or a cutting tool for breaking into a safe, felony vehicle theft with a prior and felony vandalism, while Meyers is charged with burglary, conspiracy and possession of burglary tools.



As it was filing its criminal case in the matter, the District Attorney's Office reported that it also filed charges against Vassiliou for safecracking, possession of stolen property and vandalism. A $50,000 warrant was issued for his arrest on Aug. 1.



On the morning of Aug. 4, sheriff's deputies and firefighters were dispatched to a report of a body in a pond between the first and ninth fairways on the Hidden Valley Lake golf course, as Lake County News has reported.



A sheriff's office diver helped retrieve Vassiliou's body from the pond, Brooks said.



Brooks said the diver stated that it would have been impossible for Vassiliou to get out of the pond by himself, as there was nothing to grab onto and due to the slickness of a thick rubber tarp used as a lining. The diver himself had to be pulled out of the water by other sheriff's personnel and firefighters.



Brooks said the autopsy did not reveal any other possible causes of death or injury, such as head trauma.



The toxicology report showed that, along with some regular medications, Vassiliou had methamphetamine in his system, but it was hard to determine if it was at a toxic level, Brooks said.



The District Attorney's Office's complaint showed that Vassiliou had a criminal record including a number of theft-related felony convictions in Contra Costa County.



The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said Vassiliou was arrested in June after he broke into Lily Kai restaurant in Petaluma early one morning, stole $10 in quarters and then fled. Officers later found him hiding in a nearby field.



In July 2011 Vassiliou was arrested at Cache Creek Casino on a warrant issued for his having stolen about $500,000 in rare coins from a Walnut Creek merchant during an early morning burglary in February of that year.



At the time of that arrest he had evaded authorities for about a month, having fled after law enforcement tried to arrest him on the warrant.



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