Man Arrested After 5-Year Investigation Into Murder

Shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday, investigators with the Morro Bay Police Department concluded a five-year-long investigation with the arrest a Nipomo man.

Officials said 64-year-old James Victor Lypps murdered his wife, Sherre Ann Neal-Lypps.

Sherre Lypps, who was 62 at the time of her death in September 2009, died under suspicious circumstances at the couple’s residence in the 2400 block of Greenwood Avenue in Morro Bay.

Investigators pieced together physical evidence collected at the residence with statements and witness testimony in order to identify James Lypps as the primary suspect.

The Morro Bay Police Department worked collaboratively with investigators from the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Coroners, the California Department of Justice and the FBI during the course of this investigation.

Due to the serious nature of the case, there are no further details available at this time. James Lypps is being booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail to await arraignment on the charge of first-degree murder.

*****UPDATE*****

64 year old James Lypps is being held at San Luis Obispo County Jail with no bail allowed.

“It was ugly, it was a very ugly thing that happened” says Penny White who lived across the street from James and Sherre Lypps when she died back in September of 2009.

White says she was surprised to learn of James Lypps’ arrest on Tuesday afternoon.

“My reaction is he didn’t do it, but she got her way in death”, White tells Central Coast News.

White and other neighbors say Sherre Lypps was very well known on their block on the north side of Morro Bay.

“She was not a nice lady”, White says about Sherre Lypps, “she threatened people, she said he (James Lypps) would do things to her and yet we would see things on him, so.”

Morro Bay Police say Sherre Lypps’ death was always considered to be suspicious and James Lypps was always their primary suspect but only recently were able to arrest him at his home in Nipomo.

James Lypps’ former neighbors say his wife continues to torment him from the grave.

“We lived here next to her for a long time, and saw an awful lot and heard a lot”, White says about the screaming and fighting that came from the Lypps’ home, “it was her, all the time, she would be the one that perpetuated it, whatever happened in this neighborhood, she perpetuated it. She was not well liked at all, I’m sorry that he’s been arrested, but he didn’t do it.”

Morro Bay Police have not revealed other details about this case including how Sherre Lypps died.

James Lypps is expected to make his first appearance in court on the murder charge against him this week.