Update: Rylen Quinn Svane-Morris has been arrested in Santa Cruz on suspicion of murder in connection to the Oct. 8 homicide of 72-year-old Terry Wilson, according to a statement from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, acting on a tip, arrested him without incident for the outstanding warrant. Svane-Morris will be booked at the Northern Branch Jail for his no-bail homicide warrant as well as possible additional charges.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office identified 72-year-old Terry Wilson from Santa Ynez as the victim of a homicide that occurred near Santa Ynez Valley High School, Public Information Officer Raquel Zick told the Sun.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call for an “unknown type of emergency” on Oct. 8 at approximately 3:56 a.m. and found Wilson on the scene, but he was beyond life-saving measures and declared deceased on the scene, Zick said in a statement. Sheriff’s deputies later identified Lancaster resident Rylen Quinn Svane-Morris as a suspect.
“Several hours after the murder, it was discovered that a vehicle, a blue 2014 Chrysler Town and Country minivan with California license plate 7GJW053, was stolen from a residence in the area where the murder occurred,” Zick said. “Based on the proximity, detectives believe Svane-Morris stole the Chrysler minivan after committing the murder.”
The suspect is white, 5-foot-11, with light brown hair and blue eyes. He should be considered dangerous, and people should immediately call 911 if he’s seen, she added. Wilson’s daughter, Jennie Wilson, previously dated Svane-Morris, and he along with the stolen vehicle remained outstanding as of Oct. 10.
Jennie said she filed several restraining orders against Svane-Morris due to abuse, but he managed to avoid being served and followed her to Santa Ynez. On Oct. 3—four days before Wilson’s death—Svane-Morris showed up at her father’s house, and she said he attempted to strangle her and was arrested by law enforcement.
“They let him out on Wednesday [Oct. 5], and he literally came home and killed my dad. … If they hadn’t let him out, I would still be having coffee with my dad,” Jennie said. “On Friday night, it could’ve been me.”
Jennie had just moved back home after her mother passed away from multiple sclerosis in August, she said. That Oct. 7 night, she and her dad had stayed up late taking care of two foster kittens and she decided it was time to go to bed. When she went to her room, she said she noticed that the shower was running.
“He just came and got in my shower, that’s how entitled he is. I went into the room and told my dad he’s in the shower. My dad saw him try to strangle me on Monday. They got into a scuffle and he killed him,” she said. “This guy’s a monster. Who does that? He was saying, ‘I’ll fucking kill you, old man.’ It was horrible, it was sickening.”
He then fled the scene in his boxers, she said, adding that it took 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
“This is insane that this happened, and it’s insane that nobody advocated for me, so clearly I need to do something [for myself] and for other women,” she said. “I’m so embarrassed of the law enforcement system that I want to move to Canada.”
Although there are two detectives on the case now, Jennie said she doesn’t have faith in the legal system after seeing it fail to protect her and her family prior to her father’s death.
“I’m going to raise hell if they stop looking for him. They owe me and my dad at this point. I have a sister and a brother. I have a child. He took away my child’s grandfather, my siblings’ dad,” she said. “We were just talking about his new adventure, the new chapter of his life, and it was taken. I just keep thinking about all the things we were talking about that we were going to do, and now we can’t.”
The Santa Barbara County Jail said it couldn’t verify whether Svane-Morris was booked into the jail on Oct. 3 and released, and the LA County Superior Court—which includes Lancaster—told the Sun that restraining orders are normally confidential to protect people’s privacy.
This article appears in Oct 13-20, 2022.
