Local News in Brief : Grandson Held in Slaying

An 81-year-old woman was beaten to death with a frying pan Thursday by her grandson, who said she was ill and wanted to be “put out of her misery,” Los Angeles police said.

The grandson, Sean Christopher Velazco, 21, was booked on suspicion of murder in the death of Louise E. Muratta and held without bail.

Friends and relatives of the dead woman said that she suffered from ulcers and migraine headaches, but otherwise was not in poor health, “certainly not sick enough to be asking for mercy killing,” Detective Rick Swanston said.

Muratta and Velazco lived together in a run-down, wooden house on Holly Place, a cul-de-sac in Laurel Canyon. Neighbors said they rarely saw Muratta, who told them that she had lived in the small house since it was built in 1932, the first on the block. The neighbors complained that the grandson, who police said was recently fired from his job as a driver for a Hollywood auto dealership, frequently played loud, heavy-metal rock music late at night.

Velazco called the coroner’s office shortly before dawn Thursday, reporting the death. “He apparently didn’t expect much to happen to him,” Swanston said. “He calmly called the coroner’s office and asked them to take the body away.”