Security Guard Charged in Murder, Rape, Kidnap of Brentwood Student

A security guard was charged Monday with the murder, kidnap, rape and robbery of Teak Dyer, a popular 18-year-old Brentwood student whose body was found Wednesday in Pacific Palisades, authorities said.

Rodney Darnell Garmanian, 31, of Reseda, could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted, the district attorney’s office said. He was being held without bail pending arraignment today in West Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Dyer’s bullet-riddled body was found on the floor of a restroom in an office building at 15200 Sunset Boulevard. She had attended a private pre-graduation party at the Santa Monica Pier with classmates Tuesday evening.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Harvey Giss said Dyer was last seen by a girlfriend about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. The friend told police that she left Dyer waiting in a car while she went into a house in the 300 block of Swarthmore Avenue in Pacific Palisades, where a party was under way, the prosecutor said.

Los Angeles Police Detective Randy Mancini said Garmanian, a private security guard, reported finding the young woman dead in the second-floor restroom after he unlocked the building early Wednesday. He was arrested later in the day.

Mancini would not elaborate on what evidence led to the arrest, nor would Garmanian’s employer, MacGuard Security Systems, talk about the suspect.

The Times has learned that less than a week before Dyer’s murder, a 25-year-old Pacific Palisades woman lodged an informal complaint with the security firm alleging that Garmanian had acted unprofessionally and sexually harassed her after she called MacGuard to report noises outside the home where she was house-sitting.

Garmanian allegedly put his arm around her, urged her to get in his patrol car, and stopped by the secluded house on subsequent nights, sources close to the woman said. She also began receiving threatening telephone calls.

After complaining to MacGuard headquarters, the woman was told that Garmanian would be transferred to another area and placed under investigation.

Asked specifically about the incidents, MacGuard President Kirk McDowell said Friday that he had no written report about the complaints. On Monday, McDowell said he had no further comment after other sources verified that the young woman, accompanied by her mother, had contacted MacGuard about Garmanian’s actions.

Police have talked only briefly with the woman, and she declined to discuss the incidents until she has been been interviewed at greater length by officers.

Dyer, a popular 18-year-old senior at Palisades High School, was to have graduated Thursday. Instead, memorial services were held in her honor.

She was the daughter of Jackie Dyer, a controller for motion picture producer Steve Tisch. Her father, Rod Dyer, is a prominent graphic designer who created many of the album covers for Capitol records in the 1960s.

Staff writer Terry Pristin contributed to this article.