NO DRUGS FOUND IN KILLER'S LAB TESTS

Investigators Speculated Man Was Under Influence

MERCED -- Contrary to earlier speculation, Jonathon David Bruce was not
high on methamphetamine or PCP when he brutally murdered two children with
a pitchfork in their rural home last week, according to Merced County
Sheriff/Coroner Tom Sawyer.

Toxicology tests found no evidence of alcohol, opiates, PCP, LSD, marijuana
or methamphetamine, Sawyer said at a media conference in front of sheriff's
headquarters.

Only an immeasurable trace amount of the chemical THC, the intoxicant in
marijuana, was detected, he said Thursday.

Bruce killed 9-year-old Ashley Danielle Carpenter and 7-year-old John
William Carpenter after breaking into their home Aug. 23. Three other
children -- Jessica, 14; Anna, 13; and Vanessa, 11 -- fled to a neighbor's
house. The children's parents, John and Tephanie Carpenter, were out at the
time.

Merced County sheriff's deputies, responding to a call for help, shot and
killed Bruce, 27, hitting him 13 times.

A day after the killings, Sawyer speculated that Bruce probably was high on
methamphetamine or PCP when he broke into the Carpenters' house. The
crime's horrific details -- Ashley's body had more than 100 stab wounds,
John's more than 40 -- and the apparent lack of motive pointed in that
direction, he said.

Thursday's toxicology test results clearly surprised Sawyer.

``I've said for the last week this was classical methamphetamine-PCP
behavior,'' Sawyer said. ``I'm shocked. I'm absolutely shocked that we did
not find any narcotics in his system.

``It's clear, isn't it, that a normal person would not do this? It was
bizarre. The whole event was bizarre. That's why I was hanging my hat on,
and speculating on, drug use.''

John Carpenter, the children's father, also assumed that Bruce was high on
drugs. He told the nearly 1,000 people at Wednesday's funeral for Ashley
and John: ``The real murderer is still loose. The murderer is the drug
dealer who supplied the drugs to the killer.''

The toxicology tests also found no steroids in Bruce, Sawyer said.

The 6-foot-2-inch Bruce weighed 190 pounds in early 1999 when he was
arrested by Merced police for assault, resisting arrest and being under the
influence of methamphetamine, according to Merced County Superior Court
records. When he broke into the Carpenters' home, Sawyer said, Bruce
weighed 250 pounds and had the ``huge'' biceps of an avid weightlifter.

Enough blood, urine and tissue samples were taken from Bruce to conduct
further tests if needed, Sawyer said.

``We're sending his brain off to see if we can find anything in there --
brain tumors, a previous injury, things that might have died in his brain
because of drug use,'' he added.