A founding member of the ’90s experimental rock band Mr. Bungle, Theobald Lengyel, was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder, after police in Capitola, California, found human remains they believed were those of his bride in a wooded area of a regional area. park.
Lengyel’s girlfriend, Alice Kamakaokalani Herrmann, 61, known as Alyx, was last seen in Santa Cruz, California, on December 3, according to the El Cerrito Police Department. After not hearing from her for more than a week, her family reported her missing on Dec. 12, police said.
Ms. Kamakaokalani had lived in Capitola, a small coastal city in Santa Cruz County. Police said in a statement that during their investigation they found her car, a red Toyota Highlander SUV, at Mr. Lengyel’s home in El Cerrito, about an hour and 40 minute drive from Capitola. Investigators found remains, which are still being identified, in Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley, police said.
“As the investigation progressed, it became clear that foul play was involved,” the Capitola Police Department said in a statement, “which led to the identification of Theobald Lengyel as a suspect.”
Lengyel, 54, who has also released music under the name Mylo Stone, has not cooperated with the investigation, according to the El Cerrito Police Department, which said they believed Lengyel had left town and driven to Portland, Oregon. after the disappearance of Ms. Kamakaokalani.
Lengyel, who played alto saxophone, was one of the founding members of Mr. Bungle, which formed in the mid-1980s in Northern California as a metal band before embarking on a more experimental and absurd path. The band released their first album, also called “Mr. Bungle”, in 1991.
The album, which featured a mix of progressive rock, punk and funk, featured song titles like “Squeeze Me Macaroni” and “The Girls of Porn.” Allmusic.com described it as “a difficult and not very accessible record”, but noted that “the band wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Lengyel left the band in the late 1990s, before the release of the album “California.” The band reunited and performed in Los Angeles in 2020, without Lengyel.
