Error Prompts Worries of New Homicide

A clerical error recently prompted a new alert about an old homicide in Rancho Bernardo, police said.

The alert—included on CrimeMapping.com which recently began charting San Diego crimes—made it appear as though a homicide had occurred in the 17600 block of Corte Potosi last week, on Friday, Oct. 21 and worried some residents.

In October 2010, RB resident Gerald Eugene Rabourn, 89, who lived on Corte Potosi, went missing and police investigated the disappearance as a missing persons case. But in July, 44-year-old Denise Michelle Goodwin, a woman Rabourn had hired to care for his ailing wife, was arrested and charged with the man's death, though his body has not been found. Rabourn's wife died of lung cancer.

"Due to investigational formalities, the case was re-classified and the homicide reports were written in August 2011, but the data entry was not completed until [Oct. 21, 2011]," Lt. Andra Brown said in an email to Patch.

The date of the crime was accidentally entered as 2011, instead of 2010, prompting the alert on the crime site, Brown said. The incorrect date also may have been the result of the late reclassification, Lt. Kevin Rooney said.

All deaths must be reported, for inclusion in the federal Department of Justice's annual crime statistics report, he said. But there is a short window for past year's crimes to be added to the report, and this reclassification was past that window, he said.

There was no homicide at that address last Friday, Brown said.

Goodwin is next scheduled to be in court on Dec. 6. Rabourn's family became suspicious that something had happened to him after not hearing him for some time, and police investigated. Goodwin is also accused of forging Rabourn's signature on documents so that she could sell his property and keep the proceeds. [.]

CrimeMapping.com provides regular updates about crimes occurring in several law enforcement jurisdictions, now including the city of San Diego. Residents can sign up to receive email alerts when crimes occur within a specified radius of an address, such as their home, child's school or workplace.

Find us on Facebook and Twitter @RBPatch.