Theo Lengyel, Original Mr. Bungle Bandmember, Suspected of Homicide in Girlfriend’s Disappearance
Police arrested Theo Lengyel, an original member of the experimental rock group Mr. Bungle, for allegedly murdering his girlfriend after finding human remains at a park near San Francisco. Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann, who lived in Santa Cruz County, went missing on Dec. 3 and was reported as such the next week, California’s Capitola Police Department said in a statement. “As the investigation progressed, it became clear that foul play was involved, leading to the identification of Theobald Lengyel as a suspect,” the statement from Capitola police said.ww On Tuesday, police arrested Lengyel, 54, when they found human remains in a forested area of Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley. Police are waiting for DNA confirmation but they think it is Herrmann.
Lengyel, from El Cerrito, California, is in jail without bail on a charge of first-degree murder. He will go to court on Jan. 16. There was no phone number for Lengyel on Thursday and it was not clear if he had a lawyer. The Santa Cruz County Public Defender’s Office did not answer an email asking if they had a lawyer for him.
Lengyel played saxophone, clarinet and keyboards on some recordings for Mr. Bungle, including their 1991 first album Mr. Bungle and Disco Volante in 1995. He left the band in 1996 and did not join any of the band’s reunion tours that started in 2020.
Mr. Bungle started in Humboldt County in Northern California in 1985 by high school friends like guitarist Trey Spruance, bassist Trevor Dunn and singer Mike Patton, who later performed with Faith No More. Mr. Bungle tried different musical styles like funk, heavy metal, electronic, jazz and more, and became popular during the alternative rock craze of the 1990s. Dunn said in a 2005 Q&A that Lengyel quit the band on bad terms, according to SF Gate.
“We unanimously decided to go on without him because he wasn’t growing with the rest of the band and we were running out of things for him to do. He got pissed off and I haven’t heard from him since,” Dunn said to a fan question.
Herrmann’s brother, Eric Herrmann, said she was a software engineer who went to the California Institute of Technology and worked for different companies in the San Francisco Bay Area over time. She also loved sports and competed in outrigger canoeing around the world, he said.mmm “She’s very talented, loves music, very active outdoors,” Eric Herrmann said to SF Gate on Dec. 19.