Police are looking into possible connections between 2 murders of elderly women that occurred January 7. Lillian Lehman, 91, was found dead at her Fashion Park Villas condominium in Arcadia, while Dora Peyton, 78, was beaten to death at her Duarte home.
An international businessman was abducted from his Arcadia home and later released the same evening after his abductors demanded he pay them $1 million. He was told that he would be contacted the next day with instructions about where to put the money, but no money has been paid. This is the first kidnapping of this type in Arcadia, although there have been four other kidnappings in the San Gabriel Valley since last October.
Brian Lawrence Snoke, a 24-year-old Arcadia man, was found guilty of three murders in an attempt to assume control of a lucrative cocaine sales network.
Crime statistics for the first six months of 1980 show an increase in all categories. There have already been five bank robberies this year. According to Police Chief Charles Mitchell, "We're taking a beating."
The 14-year-old son of Arcadia real estate developer Charles Bluth shot and killed one of 2 intruders who had broken into the Bluth home in the exclusive Whispering Pines neighborhood.