 Walnut Creek murder-suicide suspect used “ghost guns,” police say 
 
 A 21-year-old Lafayette man who shot his former girlfriend to death at her Walnut Creek home before taking his own life used two untraceable “ghost guns” he built himself with mail-ordered parts, police said Tuesday. Scott Bertics, 21, turned the homemade weapon on himself after shooting 19-year-old Clare Orton in the doorway of her family's home on Holton Court, off Homestead Avenue, around 6:50 a.m. on July 21. An investigation determined that Bertics had secretly purchased various parts for the guns by mail and then built the weapons himself, Edwards said. There was no evidence that the retailers sold Bertics the gun parts illegally, Edwards said. Advertisement 
 
 Small aspects of the crime still were being investigated, according to Edwards, but nothing has happened in the two weeks since the shooting to indicate anyone else was involved or that Bertics tipped off anyone to his plans. Her Facebook page indicated she belonged to the Society of Western Engineers at San Diego State, and that she was part of the Eco-Action Club while attending Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek, where she graduated in 2014. She was studying environmental engineering at San Diego State University and made the dean’s list in the fall semester. He took a leave of absence from the university after the fall 2014 semester, officials said.
– A 21-year-old former Stanford student killed his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and then himself with a "ghost gun," say police. That phrase refers to a firearm that has no serial number, and the two "ghost guns" found on the scene in Walnut Creek, Calif., were homemade firearms built with parts bought online, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Police say Scott Bertics shot and killed Clare Orton on July 21 at her home; the 19-year-old was on summer break from San Diego State University, the Mercury News reports. There was no serial number on either gun found at the scene. (The Chronicle notes that lower receivers on homemade guns normally bear the numbers, though "incomplete ones can be bought as just simple pieces of metal.") Yesterday police revealed the firearms had been built by Bertics—an engineering major who took a leave of absence from Stanford in the fall—using parts he ordered off the Internet. A person "can buy 80% of a gun" online, says Lt. Lanny Edwards, who added there is no evidence Bertics did anything illegal to get the parts. The Chronicle points out that California Gov. Jerry Brown last year vetoed a bill that would have required any gun part sold online to have a serial number and background checks for anyone buying those parts, saying he didn't believe the bill would "significantly advance public safety." Police have so far not identified a motive in the killing of Orton; the two last dated in 2013, the Mercury News reports.