Body-on-ice man guilty on drugs charges

Orange County Register

BODY IN ROOM: Kiwi accused drug dealer Stephen Royd's life of luxury ended when police found his dead girlfriend, Monique Felicia Trepp, inset, packed in dry ice in his California hotel room.

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Former Queenstown man Stephen David Royds – who stoked headlines when police investigating cocaine sales found his girlfriend's corpse on dry ice in his California hotel room – has pleaded guilty to felony drug charges.

He was arrested in March at the Fairmont Hotel after police found him with 54 grams of cocaine bundled in dozens of small packets, the Orange County Register newspaper reported.

He now faces a four-year jail term, and may yet be deported. Credit for time served and good behaviour while in custody means he could have a little more than three years left to serve.

A search of his room turned up the body of his girlfriend, Monique Felicia Trepp, 33, stuffed in a plastic tub and preserved with dry ice.

The hotel charges $300 a night and Royds had lived there for more than two years, paying cash.

Police searched the room after receiving a tip-off that Royds had been dealing cocaine. He told detectives that he discovered Ms Trepp dead on the floor on March 24 last year.

Toxicology reports released in May showed Trepp died from an overdose of cocaine and alcohol. The autopsy report described her body as "moderately decomposed".

Royds has offered varying explanations for freezing her body including, "everything that happened was for religious reasons," and that he did not want to report the death as there were already warrants for his arrest from an earlier drug conviction.

His father John is a former Queenstown deputy mayor and a respected figure in the real estate industry who had not spoken to his son for nearly eight years.

The family, originally from Waimate in South Canterbury, moved to Queenstown in the mid 1970s.

Royds was not charged for failing to report Trepp's death.

He has declined interview requests.

Police records show that Royds became so agitated after his arrest that he had to be hospitalised.

Search warrants suggested Royds had in fact decided against reporting the death because he was wanted on a probation violation related to an earlier drug conviction.

- NZPA