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Ghan

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Reward offered in Isla Vista homicide case

By ERIC LINDBERG — Dec. 1, 2009

A year and a half after a 53-year-old man was severely beaten in Isla Vista and died days later, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a $25,000 reward yesterday for any information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.

Gregory Ghan, a longtime homeless man who lived primarily in the Isla Vista area, was attacked while sleeping in the doorway of the Isla Vista Medical Clinic on May 31, 2008. He died 10 days later after relatives removed him from life support.

Sheriff Bill Brown requested the reward in October after the case went cold, sheriff’s officials said.

“Our detectives have done an outstanding job and we’ve committed a lot of resources and time to solving this case, but unfortunately they’ve exhausted all avenues,” said Drew Sugars, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

He said authorities are hopeful that the cash reward will spur someone to step forward and provide information that will lead to a conviction.

“We’ve done 94 interviews so far on this case, 960 personnel hours, and put out several hundred flyers throughout South County,” Sugars said, adding, “We’re not giving up and this just hopefully helps us in that pursuit.”

The governor’s reward will not expire and will be paid if the information leads to the arrest and conviction of those charged with the crime. Anyone with information about Ghan’s death is urged to call the sheriff’s department at 681-4100.

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Reward Offered in I.V. homicide case : 12/1/2009

This is a perfect example of how crimes agsinst the homeless should be handled. Congrats to Sheriff Bill Brown for taking this step, and for the obviously intense investigation his deputies are conducting in this case. Unfortunately, when you compare this approach to the half-hearted, incomplete investigations conducted by Santa Barbara police into the still-unsolved Stiles beating death in the city more recently. News reports indicated there are similarities in the Stiles and Ghan cases. This just shows the difference between a dedicated law enforcement professional like Sheriff Brown, and current city police chief Sanchez whose truthfulness and competence have been in question for several years.

The Petard

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Ghan's murder : 12/1/2009

I would like to thank the Sheriff for taking this additional step in trying to solve this murder. Nobody deserves to die this way and nobody deserves to escape punishment for such a crime. Hopefully someone with information will now step forward. Now, if we could only get the police to take such efforts in finding the murderers of Ross Stiles...
Ken Williams

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