La Cañada History: Manhunt shuts down neighborhood on otherwise quiet Easter Sunday; suspect found next day at La Cañada bus stop

Ten Years Ago

Glendale police driving through La Cañada on Sunday, March 23, 2008, spotted the car belonging to a suspect in a Colorado kidnapping and burglary case. With law enforcement officials believing the man might be holed up in a vacant home on the 1900 block of Tondolea Lane, the neighborhood was evacuated. Eluded by the suspect, 39-year-old James Richards, police called off that day’s operations and residents were allowed to return to their homes. The next morning, a deputy with the LA. County Sheriff’s Department found Richards sitting on a bus bench on Foothill Boulevard, in front of the La Cañada Unified School District office. Although he had a gun in his possession, he was arrested without incident. Richards was accused of the January 2008 break-in of the Boulder, Colo. home of a woman he’d once dated. Once inside, he chained her husband to a basement beam and held him at gunpoint there for 14 hours before his victim managed to escape. Richards had also allegedly made threats against a La Cañada family. (In 2011, Richards was found guilty of 10 out of 12 counts in a Boulder trial.)

Twenty Years Ago

Traditional Japanese drummers, dancers and musicians were featured when the Descanso Gardens Guild celebrated the restoration of Descanso’s one-acre Japanese Garden, which was originally opened and dedicated in 1966.

Thirty Years Ago

A long-delayed county fire department prescribed burn in Winery Canyon above La Cañada Flintridge was conducted on March 21, 1988 but couldn’t be finished due to fluctuating temperatures and humidity levels. Only 10 of the 100 acres scheduled could be burned before the exercise was called off.

Forty Years Ago

A designated smoking area for students would be established as a pilot program on the La Cañada High School campus, it was decided by a 3-2 vote of the school board. The three-prong program would begin operation in the spring of 1978 and include the smoking area, a strengthened health education program on the hazards of smoking and a regular after-school smoking clinic.

Fifty Years Ago

Responding to comments against the construction of a proposed swimming pool at La Cañada High, which would be paid for by new bonds to be voted on by the community, principal Robert Hoagland stated the pool was not a frill “in any sense of the word.”

Sixty Years Ago

The Assistance League of Flintridge held a party to celebrate the first year of business for its Bargain Box thrift shop. Proceeds raised at the shop during its early years of existence were earmarked for the La Cañada Youth House on Chevy Chase Drive (today known as the Community Center).

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.