Murdering Eldon Mate

The murder of Eldon Mate turns a suspected act of assisted death into a killing: evidence at the van suggested that someone had prepared for a medical procedure, then left Mate dead and carefully concealed the traces. The investigation’s route from an uncertain crime scene to the identification of Paul Nelson Ulrich as the prime suspect also made the crime’s apparent reversal—Mate, rather than his intended patient, becoming the victim—central to its meaning.

Setting and Initial Uncertainty

Mate was killed in his van fairly close to Alex Delaware’s home. At 7:30, Alex set out toward the site, traveling north on Beverly Glen before turning west onto Mulholland Drive. The route established the crime’s proximity to Alex while taking him through ordinary commuter traffic and roads leading into the hills.

The investigation could not initially establish how the killer had arrived or left. Milo Sturgis considered whether the person responsible had traveled with Mate, parked beyond the area already searched, or left without producing useful tracks. No one had reported another vehicle, but no one had noticed Mate’s van either, although it had remained there for hours. The absence of a reported sighting therefore offered little reassurance that the scene had been observed closely.

Reconstruction of the Killing

The van showed that the crime had involved extensive preparation and cleanup. Milo reasoned that the killer had worked at night in the confined vehicle, using a portable light, and had taken unusual care to prevent blood from being found outside. The front seats, especially the passenger seat, were heavily affected, leading Milo to infer that the killer had moved between the van and the passenger side while cleaning up.

Sheets of thick cardboard, cut to fit the driver’s windows and marked with arterial blood, appeared to have blocked the light and contained the activity inside. Milo thought Mate might have used such makeshift coverings himself, but concluded that the killer had brought them. A mattress beneath Mate’s body reinforced the possibility that someone had arrived expecting a death to take place there. Milo’s reconstruction turned on the reversal: Mate may have come prepared to help another person die, only to be killed instead.

Investigation and Evidence

The possibility that a killer could have left the site without being seen remained part of the inquiry. The van’s failure to attract notice, despite its long presence, underscored how little could be inferred from the lack of witnesses or tracks. Later, Milo returned with Alex to the road below the murder site and drove east on Mulholland, continuing the investigation through vehicle records and leads connected to Paul Ulrich and Tanya Stratton.

Milo also questioned Tanya’s sister about Ulrich’s hospital volunteering. She said he had volunteered at Valley Comprehensive Hospital, where he met Tanya, and stopped after Tanya was discharged and they began dating. The detail prompted further questions about Ulrich’s background; in the case, it formed part of the effort to examine him as an important witness, rather than proof by itself of his role in Mate’s death.

Identification and Aftermath

A later search of Ulrich’s cabin found little of evidentiary value apart from an old, burnished leather doctor’s bag bearing the gold initials EHM. Tanya said she had never seen it, and Alex believed her, reasoning that Ulrich had kept the bag hidden and produced it only when he was ready to use it. Its initials connected the remote cabin to Mate, while its concealment suggested that Ulrich had kept a part of the medical apparatus out of Tanya’s view.

The eventual report identified Paul Nelson Ulrich, age forty, as the prime suspect in Mate’s murder and said that evidence recovered at the shooting scene and elsewhere included surgical tools believed to be the murder weapons. Authorities reported that the evidence indicated Ulrich had acted alone. The report also identified him as a physician licensed in New York State under the name Michael Ferris Burke and noted that he may have been mentally ill; it offered no motive for the killing. The murder’s resolution thus rested on material links—the medical equipment and the bag—as well as the investigation’s reconstruction of a killing designed to leave little trace.