A Los Angeles man arrested Thursday night by police in Port Orchard is wanted in California for the murder of his live-in girlfriend, according to the U.S. Marshal’s Office.
The body of Dina Canale, 36, of Reseda, Calif., was found Sept. 21 in a storage shed at her home. She’d been reported missing to the Los Angeles Police Department Sept. 5, marshals said.
Police determined that Canale’s live-in boyfriend, Mark Allen Steffen, 57, had fled to Washington around the time of her disappearance, and requested the help of the U.S. Marhsal’s area fugitive task force.
On Sept. 22, a warrant charging Steffen with homicide was issued in Los Angeles, marshals said.
An off-duty Washington State trooper is said to have seen Steffen
in the Silverdale area around 5:45 p.m. Thursday and got the
license number of the car in which he was a passenger.
The plates came back to residents living in Port Orchard, and officers there waited on Highway 166 to see if the car would travel through, according to Mark Duncan, commander with the Port Orchard Police Department.
Sure enough, just after 6 p.m., the car passed through the area, and officers conducted a high-risk traffic stop at the intersection of Port Orchard Boulevard and Bay Street.
Steffen was arrested without incident. He’s being held at Kitsap County jail on $1 million bail.
A driver and another passenger in the car were released at the scene, Duncan said. It isn’t known if they knew Steffen was wanted in connection with the murder, marshals said.
Duncan said that the arrest was a “testament to good preparation and training,” between law enforcement agencies, adding that it “didn’t hardly raise an eyebrow.”
“No high speed chases, no gun battles,” Duncan said. “It went smoothly.”
Steffen is to be extradited to California, where he’ll be formally arraigned, marshals said.
