Slain Mother ‘Loved the Lord Very Much’

Laurie Tahaira Myles, the North Hills account manager shot dead Wednesday night outside her daughter’s Bible class, was remembered by friends and associates as a devout, loving woman who cared deeply about her three children.

“They were quite a blessing at the church,” said Sheri Gault, executive secretary at The Church On The Way in Van Nuys, where Myles had been a member since 1988. “They were very active.”

Myles was married to Philip Myles in 1989, according to court documents.

Her three children, including the 9-year-old who witnessed her death, were from two prior marriages.

The family lived in a tan, corner ranch house on Woodley Avenue that they purchased for $199,000 in January.

At the Los Angeles business management firm of Mucci and Lagnese, where Laurie Myles worked until three months ago, a former co-worker described her as a “loyal person” who was much liked at the office.

“She loved the Lord very much,” said the co-worker, who did not want to be identified. Myles had worked at the firm for seven years, the co-worker said. “We loved her very much and we are all in shock.”

Much of Myles’ life seemed to revolve around her fundamentalist church and her devout beliefs.

She met her husband, friends said, in a Bible study class.

Her oldest child is a senior at Los Angeles Baptist High School, a private religious school in North Hills.

And it was while picking up her teen-age daughter from a Bible study class that she was killed.

But there was a troubled side to Myles’ life, too, which emerged in court and official records.

She had been arrested on several occasions--she was convicted of shoplifting cosmetics from a Thrifty drugstore in 1992--and she and her husband had serious financial problems.

The court record in the shoplifting case also made reference to an earlier conviction for unlawful use of a hypodermic needle in 1990 in which Myles used an alias.

And her former landlord said Myles seemed deeply troubled at times.

“When I first met her she was very happy and outgoing,” said Mary Lou Justice, who rented a North Hills house to Myles and her children in 1989. “They went to Bible study and they had a big picture of Jesus in the living room.

“I remember that when I was considering them for the house, she said they had prayed I would accept them.”

Justice said that shortly after her marriage, Myles and her husband began missing some rent payments.

It got to the point that by 1992, Justice successfully had the family evicted through a court action.

“When she was leaving, she said, ‘I just feel real bad to have done this to you,’ ” Justice said.

According to a court document dated last month, Justice is still owed $6,900 in back rent and costs.

Laurie Myles declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in May, citing the back rent as one of her debts.

Times researcher Dennis Clontz and correspondents Thom Mrozek and Scott Glover contributed to this story.