Link in Deaths of Two Arcadia Women Sought

Two Arcadia women have been slashed to death within a four-day span, and detectives are trying to determine whether there are links between the two murders, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said Friday.

The latest victim was identified as Mary Cannon, 77, found with her throat cut in the bedroom of her home in the 300 block of East Haven Street on Tuesday.

Patty Elaine Higgins, 32, was found June 28 in her home in the 600 block of West Naomi Street.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lynda Edmonds said there were similarities in both crimes.

Both Lived Alone

Both apparently were killed late at night or in the early morning hours. Both died of knife wounds. Both lived alone. Mrs. Cannon was a widow, according to neighbors, and Miss Higgins was unmarried. She was a special education teacher at an elementary school.

Their homes were about two miles apart. Edmonds said Mrs. Cannon’s home had been ransacked, but there was no evidence that Miss Higgins’ home had been.

It was not known whether the women had been sexually molested, Edmonds said.

A neighbor of Mrs. Cannon, Frank Starich, said he thinks that it is unlikely that she was acquainted with the other murder victim.

Starich, who had been given a key to the house by Mrs. Cannon, said he went into the house about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday after noticing that a screen had fallen or had been pulled off a front window. He called police after he went into the front room and noticed that drawers had been pulled open and belongings strewn about the place. Police found the body.

Failed to Go to Work

Miss Higgins’ partially clad body was found in the bathroom of her home by Don Bonelli, a friend who had been called by an acquaintance who became worried when she failed to turn up for work at school.

Detectives also were investigating an attack on a woman Friday morning in neighboring Sierra Madre, but sheriff’s spokesmen said they could give no further details. The woman apparently was not seriously injured.

The bludgeon attack on two elderly widowed sisters in their home in nearby Monrovia on June 2 also was under investigation by police in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Monrovia Police Lt. Robert Page said burglary was the motive in the attacks on Mable Bell, 84, and Nettie Lang, 81. The sisters remain hospitalized, he said.