Kimberli Crespi is helped by officers into a police car, which will take her to be with other family members Friday in Matthews, N.C. Crespi's twin daughters were killed and police were questioning a suspect in the deaths. The Associated Press / Charlotte Observer

Ex-Sacramento banker in custody after his twins found dead in North Carolina

By Christina Jewett and Elizabeth Hume -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 3:09 pm PST Friday, January 20, 2006

Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here.

[Updated: 5:50 p.m., Jan. 20] A former Sacramento banking executive is being held Friday pending charges related to the stabbing deaths of his twin 5-year-old daughters his suburban Charlotte, N.C., home, authorities said.

At 1 p.m., a 911 emergency call led police to the two-story home of David Lauren Crespi, 45. There they found Crespi standing distraught in the driveway of his home in Matthews, N.C., a Charlotte suburb. The girls were killed inside the 4,900-square-foot, two story brick house, said Keith Bridges, public affairs manager of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

His three older children were at school, and his wife was away from the home at the time, Bridges said.

Crespi lived in the Pocket area of Sacramento before moving to North Carolina in 2001. He was chief financial officer of Sacramento Savings Bank, a program manager for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and an executive for The Money Store before leaving California. In Charlotte, he assumed the role of vice president of audits at Wachovia Bank.

Marta Carrera, who was Crespi's neighbor in the Pocket area, said he was a great man who was devoted to his family. She said when she moved in, David and his wife brought her a bundt cake and always sent family newsletters at Christmas.

She said David was a leader at St. Anthony's Catholic parish in the Pocket area.

"He was a fabulous father and family man, and just a really good person," she said.

Crespi's first wife, Kimberly Ann Crespi, a former Mercy General Hospital nurse, died of cancer in 1993.

For more details, return to www.sacbee.com or see Saturday's Bee.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.