Elderly Couple Found Beaten, Stabbed to Death

An elderly couple was found beaten and stabbed to death Thursday night in their spacious two-story home in an unincorporated area just west of Canoga Park, Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said Friday.

The bodies of Marvin Spitz, 70, and his wife, Myrtle, 68, were found about 8:40 p.m. in their house in the 24600 block of Kittridge Street in Westhills, deputies said. The couple probably had been dead about two days, said Lt. Charles Elliott of the sheriff’s homicide bureau.

There were no signs of ransacking, burglary, robbery or forced entry, and detectives have not established a motive for the double slaying, Elliott said.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to the home by the couple’s son, who became concerned when he and a sister were unable to reach their parents on the telephone. Sheriff’s deputies broke into the locked home and discovered Marvin Spitz’s body in the living room. Myrtle Spitz’s body was found in the kitchen, Elliott said.

Mrs. Spitz was last seen about 2 p.m. Tuesday by a neighbor, he said.

A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, described the Spitzes as “very lovely people, friendly, nice people.”

“They always had a smile, always had a hello for you,” she said.

The couple, who friends and police said were retired from the real estate business, had four children. They were active in their neighborhood association and in a Neighborhood Watch group.

“They were very sensitive, life-oriented people, who had a very strong sense of optimism about things,” said Rabbi Bernard Cohen of Temple Solael, where the Spitzes regularly attended services.