Concord enclave perseveres / Saddlewood Court was scene of grisly crime

2001-07-28 04:00:00 PDT Concord -- Saddlewood Court is a typical suburban cul-de-sac wedged into a solidly middle-class Concord subdivision. Leafy. Quiet. Uniformly beige. Think "Wonder Years," and you've pictured Saddlewood Court.

It is situated within walking distance of a church and a preschool. Basketball hoops and RVs sit outside ranch houses shaded by mature pine and oak trees. A creek runs behind the houses that during rainy months provides a calming, trickling soundtrack. And on some summer nights, you can even hear the music wafting over from the Chronicle Pavilion across Kirker Pass Road.

About this time last year, though, this pleasant neighborhood of mostly empty-nesters was transformed into something out of a macabre horror movie.

Residents came home on the afternoon of Aug. 7, 2000, to see yellow crime- scene tape cordoning off the cul-de-sac. Hovering helicopters rustled the trees, an armada of TV remote trucks with towering antennas lined side streets,

gawkers cruised by hoping to catch sight of something grisly behind the police barricade.

"We drive back from work like always," said Angie Swantkowski, recalling that day, "and the whole neighborhood's been turned into, like, a TV crime show. It was kind of creepy."

Sedate little Saddlewood Court, incredibly, had become the scene of one of the most gruesome multiple slaying-extortion plots in recent Bay Area history.

Those two brothers and that young woman, the ones who rented the Spanish- style ranch house between the Reeses and the Shamans, have been arrested in four slayings. Body parts of three of the victims -- which included the daughter of blues musician Elvin Bishop -- were later found floating in duffel bags in the Delta.

Today, as Glenn and Justin Helzer and Dawn Godman sit in Contra Costa County Jail awaiting trial and relatives of the victims wrestle with grief, residents of Saddlewood Court are getting on with their lives and trying to act as if nothing extraordinary happened last summer.

If you thought the Helzer brothers' alleged crimes would drive longtime residents out of the neighborhood or make them cower inside their homes in fear, you are wrong.

"It could've happened to any neighborhood," said Alfred Rivera, matter-of- factly. "Bad renters."

Of course, Saddlewood Court residents still remember the shock of finding out their neighbors were suspects in the slayings who, police believe, dismembered three of the victims with a reciprocal saw in that very house.

Neighbors almost visibly shiver when imagining what events might have taken place -- there also was evidence of drug use, talk of satanic cult rituals -- behind the beige stucco walls. But they aren't letting it ruin what had been a peaceful suburban existence in one of Concord's higher-income areas.

None of the seven home owners has moved or even has considered leaving. Those "Neighborhood Watch" stickers in homeowners' windows, by the way, were there long before the Helzers moved in for an eventful four-month stay.

The house itself has sat empty for almost a year now. Police investigators excavated the front yard and eviscerated the inside looking for evidence, which neighbors say was carted away by officers in two U-haul trucks. The home's owners, Su Chien-Chi and Li-Feng, of Sunnyvale, have put in new landscaping for the front yard and have done some remodeling inside, but have not rented the home or tried to sell it. The owners declined an interview request.

"I feel sorry for the landlord," Alfred Rivera said. "The place has been vacant for a year. I assume they've got a mortgage to pay. It's got to be tough to sell a place with that eerie history."

Regardless, neighbors still like it here. If anything, the incident has given them an easy conversational ice breaker when they run into each other while trimming the hedges or waxing the car.

"Lord, no, I'm not moving," Christine Rivera said. "Why would I do that? I've lived here 20-something years, raised my two kids here. They'll have to carry me out of here in a pine box to get me to leave."

This is the type of neighborhood where the couple next door looks out for your house when you go on vacation. They'll pick up your mail, bring in your garbage cans from the street.

"I'm not comfortable with the thing that happened," resident Kay Shaman said, "but I'm very comfortable with the court."

Rivera, Swantkowski, Bernadine Reese and few other people from nearby Saddlewood Drive have gathered for years at each other's homes for periodic gabfests. Those meetings have continued, though the subject matter may have changed.

"We talk about what we saw and heard over there -- mostly what we didn't see and didn't hear," Rivera said. "In a way, we all were glad we weren't nosy and didn't know what was going on. That business with the buzz saws and thinking about body parts is spooky. Angie, for instance, won't step foot in that house. But I say, the house didn't do it. It's the people who were evil, not the house."

Rivera paused, then laughed.

"We almost wish the owners would sell it, give us a fresh start," she said. "But if they rent it, I hope they're careful who they pick next time."

Typical coffee-klatch banter.