Christopher Creek pleaded not guilty after cold case evidence tied him to Diane Ayres’ death.
SAN DIEGO, CA — A Georgia prisoner has been extradited to San Diego and charged with murder in the 1999 strangulation of 23-year-old Diane Ayres, whose body was found in bushes near Balboa Park’s golf course, police said.
The arrest gives new life to a case that sat unsolved for nearly 27 years. San Diego police said cold case detectives reexamined forensic evidence from the original investigation and identified Christopher Creek, 52, as the suspect. Creek was brought back to San Diego this week after being arrested in Georgia on a San Diego homicide warrant. He has pleaded not guilty and remains in county custody while the case moves through court.
Ayres was found Sept. 4, 1999, after golfers noticed a body in bushes in the 1800 block of Golf Course Drive and called police. Officers later identified the woman as Ayres, a San Diego resident. The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that she died from strangulation. Police said Ayres had left the apartment she shared with her mother to go out for the evening and never came home. Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg said the case shows why old evidence is often reviewed again. “Sometimes it just takes a fresh look,” Lindberg said.
Police said the San Diego Police Department’s Cold Case Unit worked with the FBI and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office during the investigation. Investigators have not publicly described every step that led to Creek, but officials said forensic evidence collected in 1999 was reviewed over the years before he was identified. Prosecutors said recent testing found Creek’s DNA on several parts of Ayres’ body, not only on one item. The exact relationship between Creek and Ayres, if any, has not been established in court. Ayres’ mother, Carole Wolinski, said she did not know Creek and had never heard of him before the arrest.
Creek was found at Dodge State Prison in Chester, Georgia, where he was serving a sentence in an unrelated case. On June 16, the Laurens County Sheriff’s Department arrested him on the San Diego warrant and transferred him to the Laurens County Jail. On June 23, he was extradited to San Diego and booked into Central Jail. Court records described by prosecutors show Creek has a long criminal history across several states, including California, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Nevada, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia. The prior cases include theft, burglary, forgery, possession of stolen property and reckless exposure, prosecutors said.
The case comes from a time when DNA testing was much less common in criminal investigations. Lindberg said DNA was only beginning to be used widely in criminal cases in the 1990s. He said San Diego County still has thousands of unsolved homicides, and investigators try to review as many as possible when evidence, technology and staffing allow. Police have not said whether genetic genealogy was used in the Ayres case. They also have not released a motive or said where Ayres was killed before her body was found near the golf course.
Creek appeared in San Diego court Thursday and pleaded not guilty to murder. Prosecutors said he faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. He is being held without bond in the San Diego County Jail pending a readiness hearing scheduled for July 6. Lindberg said the arrest is not the end of the case for Ayres’ family. “This is merely the start,” he said. “It’s been almost 30 years that the family has waited for justice, but we will continue working in the courts to make sure that he’s held accountable.”
Wolinski said her daughter was smart, caring and close to her. She remembered seeing Ayres leave their apartment before she disappeared. “I can remember her walking out of the apartment,” Wolinski said. “I told her to be careful.” Wolinski did not attend Creek’s court appearance, saying the moment was too painful. She said the years since her daughter’s death have left her with questions about who Ayres met that night and how the killing happened. Those questions now move from a cold case file to a courtroom.
Creek remains in custody as prosecutors prepare for the next hearing on July 6. Police said the investigation remains open while the murder case proceeds in San Diego Superior Court.
Author note: Last updated 2026-06-26.