False Claim of Killing Closes Road

A Manhattan Beach Police SWAT team closed a five-block stretch of Aviation Boulevard to rush hour traffic for more than two hours Monday morning after a woman called police to report that a man had been killed in her back yard. But when police entered the house in the 100 block of Aviation at 8:30 a.m., they found two male occupants--and no trace of a dead man.

Police later charged the woman, Lori Wickel, with misdemeanor drug possession and giving false information to police. She pleaded not guilty in South Bay Municipal Court on Tuesday and was being held at the Sybil Brand Institute for Women on $1,000 bail. Trial is set for Monday.

Detective Sgt. Jack Zea said Wikel told officers that she had taken speed before calling police from a neighbor’s house at 5 a.m. Zea alleged that Wikel “was going through a little paranoia induced by the drugs and imagined the whole thing. In her confusion, she called us.” According to police, the 24-year-old Wikel is a friend of the two men living in the Aviation Boulevard house and had been staying with them after separating from her husband. After receiving her call, the SWAT team closed off Aviation and some side streets and put the house under surveillance, Sgt. Dale Reissig said. A SigAlert was called, and Redondo Beach police assisted in diverting traffic.