Police: Kidnap suspect may be man who rapped about killing
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man suspected of kidnapping his missing girlfriend may be the same person captured on video rapping in a Los Angeles bar about killing and burying a woman, authorities said Wednesday.
The video was made hours before Robert Camou, 27, of suburban Monrovia, was arrested early Tuesday after a five-hour standoff in his car in downtown Los Angeles.
Authorities said they had been trying to find him since a witness reported seeing Camou put the limp body of 31-year-old Amanda Kathleen Custer in the back of a Prius at his home Monday.
Blood was found at the scene and Custer hasn't been seen since. They fear she's in grave danger.
Camou was arrested on a warrant tied to a May domestic violence case involving a victim referred to only as Amanda C., and he hasn't been charged with kidnapping. It's unclear if Camou has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
In a statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said it was aware of "a video being circulated that depicts suspect Camou rapping" but had not authenticated it. The department asked anyone present during the recording to come forward.
"We want to make sure it's unedited," Deputy Trina Schrader, a sheriff's spokeswoman, told the Los Angeles Times. "If it's edited, then in court people can poke holes in it."
A video broadcast Wednesday by news station KTLA-TV shows a man taking the microphone during open-mic night Monday at a bar near Skid Row. He performs a clumsy and profanity-laced rap in which he mentions killing a woman and burying her "in the ... dirt."
"What he said, he said it with such force that people just stopped," Michael R. Moore, who recorded the video, told the Times. "They were shocked. There was a lot of hate in his expression."
Moore said he saw television reports of Camou's arrest hours later and recognized him as the same man.
Public records show Camou lives with his parents, and Custer's home is less than a block away, the newspaper reported.
The two had been dating for at least two years, sheriff's Lt. Scott Hoglund said.
Court and police records show that they had a relationship full of domestic violence allegations and that Custer sought a restraining order against Camou in February, the newspaper reported.
She said he harassed her with text messages and phone calls and in January climbed a fence and tried to get into her bedroom.
He was carrying a hatchet and at one point used it to break her window and then the mirrors of her grandmother's car, Custer said in the documents.
Her petition was denied. Camou then filed his own restraining order against Custer, which was dismissed by a judge, the Times said.
Camou in May was charged with domestic violence, burglary, battery and assault. He pleaded not guilty last month and was free pending trial but was under house arrest and had to wear an electronic monitor.
Camou was arrested on a warrant alleging he violated the terms of his electronic monitoring. He is being held in jail without bail and is due in court Thursday.
