La Cañada History: Arrest made in death of La Cañada man, 14 years after hit-and-run crash occurs

Ten Years Ago

After a 14-year search, the arrest was made of the truck driver who fled the scene after smashing into the car of La Cañada High graduate Doug Burrows and leaving the victim to die in his burning vehicle. Doug’s father John helped further the investigation by calling law enforcement officials on the anniversary of the crash every year to ask if they’d yet found his son’s killer.

Twenty Years Ago

Excitement was building at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory 20 years ago this week as Independence Day 1997 would see the landing of the Pathfinder Lander and Mars Rover project on the Red Planet. La Cañadan Donna Shirley was manager of the Mars Exploration Program.

Thirty Years Ago

A large number of koi were reported missing from the ponds at Descanso Gardens and officials there believed they had been stolen over a six-month period.

Forty Years Ago

Members of Church of the Lighted Window (now La Cañada Congregational Church) voted to call the Rev. Philip L. Anderson to succeed Dr. Ned Burr McKenney upon the latter’s retirement, effective Sept. 12, 1977. Anderson was then a minister at a church in Sebastopol, Calif.

Fifty Years Ago

Louise Tingey, best known locally as the principal of La Cañada Junior High from 1950-1961, announced she would retire after 34 years of public school teaching and administration.

Sixty Years Ago

A picturesque backyard barbecue at a Commonwealth Avenue home, a front-runner of today’s elaborate outdoor kitchen grills, was featured in the Valley Sun. The writer marveled at grill’s motorized spit.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.