The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office has filed first-degree murder charges against 32-year-old Christopher Lawrence Van Vlack, who is accused of killing his 72-year-old mother, Lynn Areno, in her Goleta apartment Sunday evening.
DA John Savrnoch alleges the killing was carried out with premeditation and deliberation, and they’ve tacked on special-circumstance allegations that Van Vlack acted “while lying in wait” and/or “for financial gain.” He also faces aggravating factors that cite “great violence” and Areno’s “particular vulnerability,” along with his prior criminal history and what the DA’s office called an “unsatisfactory” record on probation and parole.
As previously reported by the Independent, that prior criminal history includes DUI conviction in 2015, firearms convictions in 2020, driving on a suspended license charge in 2021, and, most recently, a 2024 conviction for drug possession, paraphernalia, and resisting an officer, as well as a 2013 conviction of attempting to annoy or molest a child under 18 that landed Van Vlack on the state’s sex offender registry. He was released from jail just five months ago, following the 2024 conviction.
Van Vlack, who was taken into custody at the scene on Sunday, is being held without bail at County Jail. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday, October 1, at 1:30 p.m. in Department 8 of Santa Barbara Superior Court.
