La Cañada History: Manhunt was on for suspect in the murder of an 82-year-old La Cañada artist in her home
Ten Years Ago
With several wildfires burning around the San Gabriel Valley, the skies were full of smoke and ashes, prompting the South Coast Air Quality Management District to issue a warning to area school districts. In La Cañada Unified, water polo and tennis matches were canceled as a result; the cross-country team also had to take a few days off from training. “Basically, anything [taking place] outside can’t happen,” said then-LCHS athletic director Tamar Hill.
Twenty Years Ago
Residents in the Paradise Canyon area of La Cañada Flintridge were on edge after learning 82-year-old Helen Huff, a gentle artist, was found murdered in the master bedroom of her home on Gould Avenue. A manhunt was on for Phillip Jimenez Sifuentes, aka Sha-Ahwa Sebastian Parker. He had been accused in an earlier police report made by Huff of draining $3,000 from her bank account, using her ATM card and PIN number, which she believed he’d found in her wallet while doing handyman/painting jobs around her house. Sifuentes, then 30, had also reportedly been romantically involved with Huff’s adult daughter.
Thirty Years Ago
The Descanso Gardens Guild was honored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for 30 years of dedication to the public gardens.
Forty Years Ago
As a result of the sport’s growing popularity across the nation, the first La Cañada High School soccer team was approved by the school board.
Fifty Years Ago
La Cañada residents who were members of Lutheran Church in the Foothills joined their counterparts from around the world marking Lutheranism’s 450th Reformation anniversary. In the Southland, the key celebration was held at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
Sixty Years Ago
The La Cañada Swimming Pool Committee, focused on bringing a $75,000 pool to the La Cañada Junior High School campus then on Cornishon Avenue, announced in the fall of 1957 it would enlist the support of civic and youth groups before resuming its faltering fund drive.
Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.
