No bail in 1972 Hawaii killing arrest; Reno arraignment set

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada judge has ordered a former deputy state attorney general accused of killing a 19-year-old woman in Hawaii 50 years ago to remain jailed without bail until he is arraigned next week on a fugitive charge.

Tudor Chirila Jr., 77, made a brief appearance Friday in Reno Justice Court where Judge Scott Pearson granted his request for a continuance and set his arraignment for Sept. 21 on a charge of being a fugitive from another state.

Chirila was arrested in Reno this week after Honolulu police filed a criminal complaint in Hawaii district court accusing him of second-degree murder in the January 1972 fatal stabbing of Nancy Anderson.

Police said new DNA evidence linked him to the crime scene at her apartment in Waikiki, where she had recently moved from Michigan and was working at a McDonald’s restaurant.

Chirila served as a deputy Nevada attorney general in the late 1970s, ran for the state Supreme Court in 1994 and later was the president of a corporation affiliated with the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel east of Reno.

Police served a search warrant and obtained a DNA sample from him at his Reno apartment on Sept. 6, court records show.

A Reno detective said in an affidavit that he was notified by Honolulu police late Monday they had a signed warrant for Chirila’s arrest, and early Tuesday he was taken into custody without incident at a Reno hospital where he had been taken “regarding an attempted suicide.”

Court records don’t list a lawyer for Chirila.

The criminal complaint filed in Hawaii said police had reopened the cold case multiple times since the 1972 killing and received a tip in December that Chirila could be a suspect.