Evidence Could Tie Women to Deaths

Los Angeles police detectives and FBI agents investigating a pair of women suspected of killing two homeless men have turned their attention to one of those victims after uncovering new evidence that they say links the women to his death.

Detectives looking into the case of Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt are now focusing primarily on the death of Kenneth McDavid, who was run over in a Westwood alley last June in a hit-and-run that remains unsolved.

Authorities said in a search warrant affidavit that an hour before McDavid’s body was discovered, Golay called the Auto Club to have a Mercury Sable towed from an intersection a block from where the 50-year-old was hit.

In new court papers obtained by The Times, detectives said they found blood and “organic matter” on the damaged undercarriage of the Sable.

The car was registered to an Encino woman whose name has been withheld by authorities. The woman told Det. Dennis Kilcoyne and FBI Special Agent Samuel A. Mayrose that she never owned the Sable but that her purse had been stolen around April 2003.

Authorities said in court papers that when they searched Golay’s Mercedes-Benz SUV, they found a planner containing the Encino woman’s name, a note with the Sable’s license plate number and its vehicle identification number.

At Rutterschmidt’s Hollywood apartment, authorities discovered photocopies of the Encino woman’s driver’s license, according to the affidavit. The photocopies were in an envelope marked “Helen sent Pictures,” along with the Encino woman’s name, address and cellphone number.

Kilcoyne said investigators now believe the Encino woman was the victim of identity theft and was not involved in McDavid’s death.

Rutterschmidt, 72, and Golay, 75, were indicted last month on nine charges, including mail fraud, for allegedly collecting more than $2.2 million in life insurance on McDavid and Paul Vados, who was killed in an unsolved hit-and-run on Nov. 8, 1999, in a Hollywood alley.

They have pleaded not guilty. Both women are being held in federal custody and could not be reached for comment. Their attorneys could also not be reached.

Prosecutors allege that the women paid the rent on apartments for Vados and McDavid in order to keep track of the men’s whereabouts for two years. In McDavid’s case, authorities say Golay approached him at church and offered to get him off the streets in exchange for his signing an application for a $500,000 life insurance policy.

Although authorities said the women had no family relationship to Vados or McDavid, the pair were listed on insurance applications as the men’s aunts or cousins or business partners, and Golay as a fiancee.

Neither woman has been charged in the mens’ deaths, but police detectives have described them as suspects.

Investigators said they were focusing on McDavid’s death because it occurred more recently and because they have tracked down more clues. But they said they are also continuing to pursue Vados’ death, as well as that of a 97-year-old Massachusetts man who was hit by a car in Santa Monica.

According to the court papers, investigators believe McDavid was hit and killed by a car traveling at “a fairly low speed.” He may have been unconscious because of a combination of alcohol, prescription sleep drugs and prescription painkillers that coroner’s officials found in his system, according to prosecutors.

Detectives obtained a warrant to check Golay and Rutterschmidt’s homes for possible prescription medicines found in McDavid’s system, but police have not said what they found in that search.

Detectives have arranged for DNA tests on the blood found on the Sable but have not received the results.

The Sable has proven to be a key piece of evidence in the case.

A few weeks after McDavid’s death, the car was found on a Hollywood side street, less than a mile from Rutterschmidt’s apartment, prosecutors said. The vehicle was ticketed three times between July 15 and 20, and records indicate that it was impounded and determined to have been abandoned.

Impound records indicate that the vehicle had “front-end damage,” according to the court filing.

The Sable was eventually sold by Hollywood Tow to a person who was unaware of its past.