Purse Snatcher May Face Murder Charge After Victim, 84, Dies

An 84-year-old Granada Hills woman has died in a convalescent home about a year after she was seriously injured in a supermarket parking lot robbery attempt, authorities said Friday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Janice L. Maurizi said the Los Angeles County coroner’s office is investigating whether the Sunday death of Freda Crawford is connected to injuries she suffered in the March 27, 1988, incident. It will be several weeks before coroner’s investigators complete their report, she said.

Michael P. Kellet and Richard Phillips, both 20, were convicted late last year in San Fernando Superior Court of robbing Crawford and another elderly woman and are serving prison terms. Phillips was found guilty of personal infliction of great bodily injury and two charges of robbery and was sentenced to seven years. Kellet was convicted of two charges of robbery and was sentenced to six years.

“I think it would be hard for murder charges not to be filed,” Maurizi said. “The woman was never on her own after this all happened and needed round-the-clock medical care.”

Crawford was putting groceries in her car in the parking lot of a Huges market at Devonshire Street and Balboa Boulevard when one of two men in a passing car reached out and grabbed her purse, police said.

Dragged 40 Feet

Crawford, who held on to the purse, was dragged 40 feet before the car swerved and ran over her, police said. She was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills in critical condition.

Kellet and Phillips were arrested a day later. Evidence in their car linked them to the other robbery in which an elderly woman’s purse was snatched, authorities said.

Close friend Ted Horton, 62, described Crawford as a lively woman who was mostly bedridden after the accident. “She was never the same,” he said. “They took the remainder of her life.”

Services for Crawford, who died at Beverly Manor Convalescent Home, are scheduled Monday at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth.