Detectives Seek Help in Two Cold Cases

Monterey Park (myFOXla.com) - Sheriff's homicide detectives sought the public's help today in finding clues in two cold-case homicides -- one from 2002 and the other from 1976 -- that they hope to solve with DNA technology.

A reward of $150,000 is in effect for information that helps solve the most recent case, the Oct. 18, 2002, killing of 15-year-old Brenda Sierra, said Detective Larry Brandenburg of the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau.

Brenda was abducted in East Los Angeles while walking to a friend's home, from which she and her friend were to have been driven by a parent to Schurr High School in Montebello, Brandenburg said.

The girl's body was found the next day along a mountain road in Crestline in San Bernardino County. An autopsy showed she suffered a head injury, Brandenburg said.

"We firmly believe a street gang in East Los Angeles is responsible for her kidnapping and murder," Brandenburg said, adding that "in no way was she affiliated with any gang."

The reward was offered by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects in the girl's killing.

Detectives also sought clues in the 1976 killing of Karen Klaas, 32, the ex-wife of singer/songwriter Bill Medley of "The Righteous Brothers" fame.

On Jan. 30, 1976, Klaas, who had remarried, dropped off her 4-year-old child by her new husband at day care and went to her Hermosa Beach home, Brandenburg said.

Neighbors -- concerned when they could not contact her -- called police, and she was found dead in the home. She had been strangled, beaten and raped, Brandenburg said. She died several days later.

A man was seen leaving her home around the time of the crime, but her killer was never found. Her husband was ruled out as a suspect, Brandenburg said.

"We're hoping someone who knew her, or who knew her friends or her associates, will contact our detectives now, and provide us with names that we can follow up on; names that we might not have in our files," Brandenburg said. "This murder is solvable."

Investigators believe modern-day DNA technology can help solve both cases, Brandenburg said.

Anyone with with more information about either case was urged to call the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500, or use the Web site www.lacountymurders.com .