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2 charged in triple murder in Calif. "furry" community

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Two young men were charged Tuesday with murder in the slayings of a California couple and a family friend who were discovered after the couple’s 6-year-old daughter called police, reports CBS Los Angeles.

Army Pfc. Joshua Acosta, 21, and Frank Felix, 25, were each charged with three counts of murder, and Acosta also faces possible sentencing enhancements for personal discharge of a firearm causing death, the Orange County district attorney’s office said. Prosecutors allege that Acosta was the gunman in the killings of Jennifer Yost, 39, her husband, Christopher Yost, 34, and their friend Arthur Boucher, 28. 

The suspects and victims attended “furry” events where some participants dress up in colorful animal costumes, according to friends and their social media pages. The victims were killed in the Yost’s home early Saturday.

An arraignment initially set for Tuesday was postponed until Oct. 28. Neither man has been reachable for comment while being held in jail since the weekend.

A friend of Felix who was waiting outside the courthouse Tuesday told CBS Los Angeles that she had received a text message from Felix Saturday saying, “It isn’t us.”

The district attorney’s office did not comment on why a 17-year-old girl was also taken into custody by Fullerton police in the case.

After the bodies were discovered Saturday, police said Jennifer Yost’s 17-year-old daughter was missing. When the teen’s arrest was announced, police also said the daughter had been located but did not say whether she was the teen in custody.

Police were summoned to the home Saturday by the couple’s younger daughter. She was not harmed, nor was her 9-year-old sister.

Melinda Giles said she became friends with Jennifer Yost after meeting her and her daughter last year at a gathering of “furries.”

She said she also saw Felix and Acosta at furry events, and had met Felix at the Yost family home.

She said Jennifer Yost told her several weeks ago that she had forbidden Felix from seeing her teen daughter.

“To protect her daughter, Chris and Jenn were like, ‘We don’t want you to be friends with our daughter anymore,’” Giles said Monday, adding that the couple was warm, generous and recently helped her move into her new home. “It is really sad because they didn’t deserve that. Those little girls didn’t deserve to wake up to dead parents.”

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