Police Fear Restaurateur, Friend May Have Been Slain

A downtown restaurateur and her boyfriend are missing--along with about $15,000 in cash--and police say they fear the pair may have been the victims of robbery and murder.

Lydia Katash, 40, and Eli Massalton, 30, were last seen about 11 p.m. Jan. 26, a Sunday, shortly before they closed Jack’s Placita Restaurant at 327 S. Broadway, said Detective Bud Watts of the Los Angeles Police Department’s robbery-homicide division.

Watts said Wednesday that the pair apparently had three or four days’ receipts with them when they closed the popular Latino restaurant next to Grand Central Market. Katash’s former husband, Jack Katash, estimated that the receipts amounted to about $15,000.

The aging car that Lydia Katash and Massalton used to commute to work was found in its usual parking place across the street from the restaurant.

“Did they go on a lengthy vacation? We don’t know,” Watts said. “Were they victims of a street robbery and homicide? We don’t know. But as every day goes past, our concern grows that we may have a homicide.”

Jack Katash said his former wife had disappeared unexpectedly with Massalton six years ago, but eventually returned.

“I hope that’s what it was this time,” he said. “But I have no idea what happened.”

Jack Katash, who emigrated from Israel about 20 years ago, said he and his wife operated the restaurant for more than 15 years until Massalton, his second cousin, arrived here from Israel about seven years ago.

Massalton and Lydia Katash soon became romantically involved, Katash said, and she moved into an apartment with Massalton. Jack Katash said he was left to care for their four children, then ages 4 through 11, at the family home in Northridge.

“That time, for the first three weeks, nobody heard from them,” Jack Katash said. “But then she finally called.”

Jack Katash said he and his wife reunited after about 15 months, but the romance with Massalton eventually rekindled and the Katashes divorced, with Lydia Katash taking over the restaurant and Massalton becoming her business manager.

Lydia Katash and Massalton maintain separate residences in Northridge, police said. She lives with her four children and he lives alone.

Watts said that shortly after employees last saw the missing pair, the woman’s eldest son, Joseph, 17, called her. She told him she and Massalton were locking up and were on their way home, Watts said. That was the last time the pair were heard from.

The next morning, Watts said, Joseph Katash arrived for work at the restaurant at 8 a.m. to find the place locked from the outside as usual.

“There’s not a whole lot we have to go on right now,” Watts said.