Police announce reward in slaying of 86-year-old in Windsor Square

Police on Thursday announced a $50,000 reward in the fatal stabbing of an 86-year-old woman in December inside her Windsor Square home.

Antonia “Toni” Yager was found dead Dec. 22 about 7:30 p.m. Police have not yet determined a motive, and it is unknown whether anything was taken from the home in the 100 block of North Beachwood Drive.

The Los Angeles Police Department is asking for help from anyone who was in the area or who saw anything. Yager’s home was near Larchmont Village, where there’s a lot of foot traffic.

“There’s always someone out there who knows something,” LAPD Lt. John Radtke said.

Yager was a World War II survivor who worked as a nurse in Brussels and Amsterdam before coming to the United States in 1959, at 31. She married Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas C. Yager in her 70s, and after he died in 2008, she began making new friends such as Shar Penfold, whom she met through the Assistance League of Los Angeles.

“I could pretty much say to her, ‘Let’s go here,’ and she would go,” Penfold said.

The night before she was killed, Yager attended at a holiday event at the Wilshire Country Club. She was in good spirits and dressed “impeccably” as she usually did, friends said.

“We’re baffled,” said John Franklin, a family friend, and one of about a dozen friends who attended the news conference. “She was the nicest lady in the world.”

Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD’s West Bureau Homicide unit at 213-382-9470. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

Twitter: @nicolesantacruz; @latimeshomicide