Key Witness Found : Man Arrested 2nd Time in Strangulation

A Sherman Oaks graphics artist was rearrested Monday in the killing of an 18-year-old woman after Los Angeles police tracked down a key witness who had disappeared last year.

Richard Heywood Jordan, 41, was arrested at a friend’s house in Tarzana on suspicion of the murder of Jacquie Raye Graham, Detective Tom Cuillard said. Jordan is being held without bail at the Van Nuys jail.

A murder charge was dropped against Jordan after the disappearance of Graham’s boyfriend, Richard Hurst, then 20.

“We have found our key witness and are ready to go with the case,” Cuillard said.

Graham was found strangled near a baseball field in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area on July 20, 1987. A day earlier, she had turned to prostitution for the first time in an effort to get money for herself and for Hurst, police said.

Reported Missing

Hurst reported her missing when she did not return after getting into a car with her first customer, police said. Hurst reported the car’s license plate number to investigators, detectives said.

After Graham was found dead, the car was traced to Jordan, who was arrested and charged in the slaying. But at a preliminary hearing Nov. 9, Hurst did not show up at Van Nuys Municipal Court and the charge against Jordan was dropped. Prosecutors said the case could not proceed without Hurst’s testimony.

Detectives had been trying to locate Hurst, who before his disappearance had lived in Oxnard and in Seattle for 11 months, when he telephoned from out of state and agreed to return to Van Nuys to testify against Jordan. Police would not disclose from where Hurst had called.

“He had just traveled out of state,” Cuillard said. “We kept calling people he knew, and eventually somebody got the message to him and he called us.”

Cuillard said Hurst agreed to testify. It was unclear why he did not show up for Jordan’s preliminary hearing last year, Cuillard said.