Five days after Redlands residents Dan and Stephanie Menard were last seen alive, police received a crucial tip on Thursday, August 29, that helped crack the case and move it from a missing person investigation to a homicide investigation.

“Police dispatchers received information from an individual, identified as a family member, that the suspect, Michael Sparks, was involved in the disappearance and had admitted to killing two people and was threatening suicide,” Redlands Police Chief Rachel Tolber said at a news conference Tuesday, Sept. 3, at the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.

Dan Menard, 79, right, and his wife Stephanie Menard, 73, were believed to have been killed, Redlands police said. (Courtesy Redlands Police Department)

Michael Royce Sparks, 62, was charged Tuesday, Sept. 3, with two counts of murder in the deaths of Dan Menard, 79, and his wife, Stephanie Menard, 73. Investigators spent days removing bags of human remains, believed to be those of the Menards, from beneath Sparks’ home. (Courtesy of the Redlands Police Department)

A vigil was held by residents of the Olive Dell Ranch nudist resort and others in Redlands for Stephanie and Dan Menard, an elderly couple who lived there and who police say were killed by their neighbor, Michael Royce Sparks, on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (Photo by Milka Soko, Contributing Photographer)

San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson answers questions from the media Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in San Bernardino about missing Reche Canyon couple Stephanie Menard, 73, and Dan Menard, 79. Police arrested the Menards’ neighbor, Michael Royce Sparks, 62, on Thursday, Aug. 29, and he was charged with two counts of murder Tuesday on suspicion of killing the Menards and dismembering their bodies. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson answers questions from the media Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in San Bernardino about missing Reche Canyon couple Stephanie Menard, 73, and Dan Menard, 79. Police arrested the Menards’ neighbor, Michael Royce Sparks, 62, on Thursday, Aug. 29, and he was charged with two counts of murder Tuesday, Sept. 3, on suspicion of killing the Menards and dismembering their bodies. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

Redlands Police Chief Rachel Tolber answers questions from the media Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, at the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office about missing Reche Canyon couple Stephanie Menard, 73, and Dan Menard, 79. Police arrested the Menards’ neighbor, Michael Royce Sparks, 62, on Thursday, Aug. 29, after finding remains on his property and on suspicion of murder. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

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Dan Menard, 79, right, and his wife Stephanie Menard, 73, were believed to have been killed, Redlands police said. (Courtesy Redlands Police Department)

Develop

District Attorney Jason Anderson announced the filing of two counts of murder against Sparks, 62, of Redlands, including a special circumstance allegation for committing multiple homicides. Sparks will be arraigned Wednesday, Sept. 4, in San Bernardino Superior Court, he said.

“I want to say that from the very beginning of this case, what impressed us was the community members, friends and family who were so concerned about the Menards that they came forward to indicate that things were not right,” Anderson said.

The crime, the most gruesome case in recent years in Redlands, made national headlines because the victims lived on a nudist ranch and were dismembered.

I lived on the ranch for 15 years

Dan Menard, 79, and his wife Stephanie, 73, have lived at the Olive Dell Ranch nudist resort for 15 years. The resort, founded in 1952, is nestled in the hills of Reche Canyon, south of Redlands and on the southeast outskirts of Colton.

The Menards’ car was found abandoned on a road inside the resort around 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 24. The keys were still in the ignition, and Stephanie Menard’s purse and her husband’s cellphone were found inside their mobile home down the street. A friend reported the couple missing the next day, police said.

Residents of the complex immediately became concerned about the couple’s disappearance, telling police that Dan Menard suffered from dementia. The couple’s beloved white shih tzu, Cuddles, also disappeared and has not been found.

Police searched the hills and canyon surrounding the ranch for four days and were at the ranch the evening of Aug. 29 questioning residents when Redlands police dispatchers received the call, allegedly from a family member of Sparks, saying he had texted them that he had killed the Menards and was going to kill himself, Tolber said.

Police immediately cordoned off the complex and began searching for Sparks, narrowing their search to his home, which is next to the Menards’ mobile home, Tolber said.

Hiding in a makeshift basement