Redlands nudist resort reeling from resident’s arrest on suspicion of killing 2 neighbors

For generations, the Olive Dell Ranch nudist resort in Redlands has provided an environment that members both past and present describe as communal, liberating and stress free.

Many first-timers on short visits have found themselves coming back to the 149-acre ranch, nestled among olive and pepper trees in the often-arid hills of Reche Canyon, south of Redlands on the southeastern outskirts of Colton. And some of them took up permanent residency.

But shifts in management style have fueled tension among some members that prompted litigation.

And now, the apparent deaths of Dan Menard, 79, and his wife, Stephanie Menard, 73, and the disappearance of their shi tzu Cuddles, has left the community shaken. The Menards had resided at the resort for 15 years.

“I never believed that something like this would happen to our community,” said Tom Crouch, 62, who lives just outside the resort with girlfriend Colette Rodriguez. “We don’t get a whole lot of crime or action up here.

“It’s been a pretty safe community but, of course, when something like this happens, you start questioning how safe you are,” he said.

Rodriguez and Crouch knew the Menards well and opened their home to them for “Karaoke Fridays.”

Although Rodriguez believes that what happened to the Menards was isolated and a targeted crime, she said it has still left her and Crouch feeling a little apprehensive.

“We close our gate at a certain time now,” said Rodriguez, 61, who has lived at the house for five years.

Olive Dell Ranch

The resort sits atop a hill at the end of a long and winding rural dirt road, inside a gate. Sixty of the 70 spaces are designated for RVs, and the other 10 are for mobile homes, according to documents filed in Superior Court in San Bernardino County. There are about 150 residents, the documents say.

“When Tom and I found out they were missing, our hearts were in our mouth,” Rodriguez said of the Menards, standing in her driveway Friday morning, Aug. 30, choking back tears.

She said the Menards lived a routine life of poker nights and karaoke nights, church, sitting on their porch, and walking Cuddles.

“So to not see them anymore is weird,” Rodriguez said. “They were an awesome couple.”

The Menards were last accounted for last weekend, on Saturday, and reported missing by a friend the next day. On Thursday, Aug. 29, Redlands police used a battering ram to breach the home of Michael Royce Sparks, 62, a neighbor of the Menards. Hours later, around 9:30 p.m., police found him in a subterranean space, five feet deep and lined with concrete and arrested him on suspicion of murdering the couple.

The next day, a cadaver dog alerted police, and they said they found human remains in that space. It hadn’t been disclosed yet whether they were of both of the Menards.

A possible motive had not been revealed yet by the authorities.

Shirtless and wearing tie-dye overalls and brown sandals, Chris Hernandez, an Olive Dell resident for the last five months, stood outside the gates on Friday where reporters had amassed.

“I’d always see Dan with Cuddles, their dog,” Hernandez said. “He was always smiling and was a very nice man. Ever since I’ve been here everyone has been so nice and welcoming, so I never expected anything like this to happen.”

He said he moved to the community because he felt it was safe, and he “loved how calm the community was.”

Hernandez said he had seen Sparks out and about on a patio and inside the resort.

“When I saw the picture of Sparks on the news, that’s not the Sparky that we knew, that’s not the man that we knew,” Hernandez said. “So we’re just trying to figure out what went wrong.”

Nudist life

Rodriguez used to mingle with the nudists at the resort and participate in the lifestyle, and described its members as “very sweet” and mostly senior citizens living off of fixed incomes.

Hernandez described life at Olive Dell as “freeing.”

“Most of us live our lives completely naked,” Hernandez said. “A lot of people find it uncomfortable and weird, but we just look at each other as neighbors, nobody is paying attention to your body. We’re just trying to live our lives in a different way than other people, and this is how we choose to live our lives.”

Nichole Storm, an Olive Dell resident of eight years, described the resort as a place where class distinctions evaporate.

“When I’m sitting there in the hot tub with five other people, the masks are off,” Storm said on Friday. “Am I sitting by the bank CEO, or am I sitting next to a hippie?”

Alfred Neubauer, 65, of Bloomington said his parents first brought him to Olive Dell Ranch in 1959, a year after he was born, and he spent most weekends of his childhood, teenage years and much of his adult life at Olive Dell. He said his mother and father became enamored with the nudist lifestyle and festive environment.

Although he dressed like a typical civilian when he went to school and was tending to life outside Olive Dell, he was proud of his family’s lifestyle and never felt the need to keep it secret.

“I would pick up nicknames like ‘Nudebauer’ from friends in school and stuff like that,” said the retired Federal Express truck driver and former U.S. Marine. “I didn’t pay it any mind. If you don’t let what people say bother you, it’s not a big deal. They’re the ones with a problem with it, not me.”

For years, Neubauer and his now-ex wife coordinated resort events including its annual Labor Day Luau, weekend bingo, Friday night poker, pool tournaments, and volleyball.

Neubauer departed the resort, and the naturist lifestyle in 2010 due to a conflict with the former owners over management style and the direction of the resort.

Tensions rise

Rodriguez said the Menards complained that management was demanding membership fees from them and restricting the couple’s pool privileges.

”When they would go to the pool someone would harass them for money,” Rodriguez said. “People started poking around their RV and their mobile home, so what we did is we opened up our home to them. They would come every Friday, and if I had extra food, I would share it with them. They were good people. All they wanted to do was sing karaoke and hang out by the pool.”

In March, Storm, the eight-year resident, said management began serving eviction notices and raising rents. Stephanie Menard was one of the more engaged residents, attending meetings they had about the dispute.

In June, residents Wayne and Sandy Marinelli filed a lawsuit against the resort owners, alleging they improperly imposed fees, raised rents and issued eviction notices, said their attorney, Robert Williams of the BWA Law Group in Santa Ana. The next month, a judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking evictions of residents at the resort who refuse to pay certain fees, court records show.

The owners’ attorney responded to the request for the restraining order by filing a document with the court that said the fees and evictions were appropriate.

Management and the majority ownership could not be reached for comment.