GOP activist, lecturer wife were dead for days before being found

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/17/8 | Jaxon Van Derbeken,Jill Tucker

[SmithL]

PLEASANTON -- A Republican activist and professional poker player and his university lecturer wife found slain inside their country club home in Pleasanton had been dead for several days before their bodies were discovered Friday, authorities said today.

Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and his wife, Charlene Abendroth, 57, were discovered at 12:30 p.m. Friday after their daughter could not reach them and summoned officials with the Castlewood Country Club association to the home at 18 Castlewood Drive. The couple had owned the home for about 18 months, a neighbor said.

No arrests have been made, and authorities have not said how the couple died. They have said they do not believe it was a murder-suicide.

Scherer was a former San Ramon Valley school board member, an investor and a professional poker player, who was also a reliable Republican Party volunteer, acquaintances said. Abendroth lectured in accounting at Cal State East Bay, but was on sabbatical this semester. She was also active in the local Mormon Church, friends said.

Among Scherer's friends was Dean Andal of Stockton, a Republican who is challenging freshman Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton. Scherer was to have gone on a precinct walk on Andal's behalf Saturday, the candidate said today.

"I've known him for many years - he was extremely active and hardworking Republican volunteer," Andal said. "He is an organizer - he could organize whole towns, just a dynamo, a very effective person, deeply committed.

"He was full of life, enthusiastic," Andal said.

[SmithL]

Rest in Peace

[Viking2002]

This reeks of a targeted hit.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

If you make a living at high stakes gambling, you might run into some very unnice folks.

[Viking2002]

True. But personally, they seemed affluent enough for him to indulge in it. Given their geographic location, my first instinct would be that it was more an act of demented crapweasels who didn't like their territory threatened, taking out a pair of contented eagles who didn't fortify their nest strongly enough. That selective ransacking was an amateurish giveaway. A country club - even a gated one - isn't something that would deter anyone with an agenda. It would be like Freepers opening a branch office in southeast D.C., and hoping a Radio Shack alarm system, a barking chihuahua, and local law enforcement would protect their integrity. If someone wants to render you inert, the classic protective 'comfort foods' are empty calories.

[freema]

Your side of the country.