TEENS' SLAYING SUSPECT LIKELY HAD HELP, POLICE SAY.

Byline: Donna Huffaker and Jennifer Hamm Staff Writer

GLENDALE - The 15-year-old boy accused of bludgeoning two teen-agers to death at a Glendale school knew the youngsters and may have had help carrying out the brutal crime, which has rocked the community, police said Tuesday.

Investigators said the arrested youth was an ``acquaintance'' of the slain boys - Blaine Talmo, 14, of Glendale and Chris McCulloch, 13, of La Canada Flintridge - but he did not attend school with them.

``It is quite possible that we may eventually focus on more than one suspect. We do believe that we will arrest at least one more,'' said Glendale police spokesman Chahe Keuroghelian.

``Nothing leads us to believe the murders were racially motivated or gang related. But we're not ruling out any possibilities,'' he said.

Police searched the 15-year-old's La Crescenta home Monday, a night after a neighbor found the bloody bodies at Valley View Elementary's playground.

As detectives widened their investigation, new details about the teen- agers began to emerge from friends and family members who gathered at a makeshift memorial at Valley View Elementary.

McCulloch's stepfather, Scott Bristow, said he believes more people would be implicated in the killings.

``I can't believe it was just one kid unless it was a kid the size of a hulk,'' he told the Associated Press.

Bristow said his stepson loved skateboarding and riding bicycles. His 5-year-old brother idolized him but had not been told of the killing, Bristow said.

``He loved his friends. He would do anything for them. That may have been what killed him.''

McCulloch was born in Stirling, Scotland, where Bristow met the boy's mother. McCulloch was 6 when the family came to the United States and moved to La Canada Flintridge because it was a good neighborhood with good schools.

``But trouble finds you wherever you are,'' he added.

As word spread about the 15-year-old suspect, local students began to wonder if they know him.

``The main thing that kept re-appearing was the students are really concerned it was another student who did it,'' said Denise Jones, head counselor at Crescenta Valley High School. ``They felt creepy and betrayed.''

At Valley View Elementary, waves of teen-agers dropped flowers, lighted candles and signed posters under the police tape still draped across the school fence. Many wrote poems and prose - including Talmo's grandmother - and some scrawled ``Chris'' on their arms in green marker.

Friends described both boys, who were entering ninth grade this fall at Crescenta Valley High School, as ``jokesters'' who liked to ride skateboards and had had misdemeanor brushes with the law.

McCulloch's family reported him missing to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department just after midnight Sunday, Keuroghelian said.

Over the past couple of months McCulloch attended ACTION meetings, a parent and teen-ager support group that counsels adolescents for a variety of problems, such as drug and alcohol addiction, said chief executive officer Cary Quashen.

Talmo, who's father is a Los Angeles County sheriff's sergeant, had begun football practice at Crescenta Valley High School.

Both boys were seen sleeping in a park off New York Avenue on Saturday morning by Ashley Calvillo and Javiera Olmeado, CV ninth-graders.

The 13-year-olds were practicing cheerleading when they spotted the boys, who told them they had gone to a party the night before and had not gone home. The girls saw them sleeping under a tree, they said.

McCulloch's 14-year-old friend Chris Hutchins depicted the boys as average kids, adding, ``They were clowns.''

He also said McCulloch had been having a tough time lately and gotten ``screwed up'' with the wrong crowd. The boys sometimes participated in skateboard competitions at Crescenta Valley Community Church, said youth pastor Mark Yeager.

``They were good boys. They had their challenges, but I enjoyed chatting with them,'' he said, noting ``this is all just so hard to swallow.''

Crowds of teen-agers backed away from the shrine and threw down their bikes to hug McCulloch's best friend, Michael Hamami, who brought a basket of flowers and teared when he set it down. Wearing a necklace McCulloch used to own, Hamami said, ``I don't know who could do this. It's not human.''

Of the 1,600 students attending summer classes at Crescenta Valley High School, about 40 met with counselors individually or in groups.

``'Pain manifests itself in a lot different ways,'' said Gary Talbert, co-principal. ``This is not a time for silence to be golden. This is a time for the students to talk.''

District officials may remove the playground equipment at Valley View, some of which was splattered with blood, said Vic Pallos, Glendale Unified School District spokesman. ``We don't want them to continue to have images of where this horrendous murder occurred.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) A makeshift shrine of flowers, candles, cards and letters at Valley View Elementary School honors slain Blaine Talmo and Chris McCulloch.

Lexey Swall/Special to the Daily News

(2) Blaine Talmo

(3) Chris McCulloch