SCA Ousts King After Arrest as Murder Suspect

Luis R. Rondon, King of the Society for Creative Anachronism’s East Kingdom, has been expelled by from the Society following his arrest on a felony charge of second degree murder. The East Kingdom covers Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania and New York, the New England states and eastern Canada.

Rondon’s arrest was reported by the Middletown, NY Times Herald-Record, “Police: Man arrested in New Windsor murder was ‘known acquaintance’ of victim”:

A New Windsor man arrested Friday night in California for the death of 32-year-old Deborah A. Waldinger was a “known acquaintance” of the victim, police said Sunday afternoon.

…Waldinger’s body was discovered Wednesday morning by a maintenance man who had gone to her Southgate Village apartment complex residence to do work.

The Orange County [New York] Medical Examiner’s office determined that Waldinger died due to blunt force trauma to the head.

The East Kingdom’s Board of Directors announced on October 12 —

…the Society Seneschal expelled Luis R. Rondon, known in the Society as Luis de Castille, from the Society for Creative Anachronism. This is due to a criminal investigation of Mr. Rondon.

Mr. Rondon has abdicated his position of King of the East.

The East Kingdom’s Social Media Officer discouraged members from discussing the situation publicly: “What the East faces ahead will be difficult. There isn’t a person in the Kingdom who thinks otherwise at this point, I believe. More information will be released as we are permitted to do so.”

[Thanks to James Davis Nicoll for the story.]

7 thoughts on “SCA Ousts King After Arrest as Murder Suspect

  1. The timeline, as far as I can tell, is:
    On Saturday October 5, the new King and Queen of the East were crowned in Pennsylvania.

    The body of Deborah A. Waldinger was found Wednesday morning in her apartment. News Reports say she died of blunt force trauma to the head.

    On Thursday The Seneschal of the East Kingdom (Regional President) said on Facebook “There is a family emergency which will have Them (the King and Queen of the East) out of communication for a bit”. (This was in regard to an unrelated thing that was being discussed on the Unofficial East Kingdom Facebook page.)

    On Friday, news reports say that Luis R. Rondon was arrested and charged with second degree murder in Taft, California which is where the SCA’s Great Western War was held this weekend. Reports say he is being held by the Kern County Sheriff’s office and will be extradited back to New York.

    On Saturday afternoon October 12 the Seneschal of the East Kingdom announced King Luis had abdicated but the Queen would stay on the Throne of the East. Several hours later, the Seneschal of the SCA announced Mr Rondon was expelled from the SCA, as shown above.

    There was supposed to be a press conference by the New Windsor police today but news reports say it was cancelled.

    There are many remembrances of Debbie Waldinger on the Markland Facebook page and the Unofficial East Kingdom Facebook page. I did not know her, but it appears she was very much loved and respected by her friends in both organizations and is missed terribly.

  2. ULTRAGOTHA: Thanks for adding the item about the Rondon being arrested in the vicinity of the SCA’s Great Western War.

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