Rewards Totaling $32,500 Posted in Slaying of Mother of Three : Crime: Two young men who were in a brown American-made car are sought in the Northridge killing of Laurie Myles.

Lacking any solid leads, Los Angeles police on Monday offered rewards totaling $32,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of two men who shot and killed a North Hills mother of three during a robbery nearly two weeks ago.

At a morning news conference at the Devonshire Division station, police said they are seeking an African-American man, about 19, and a young Latino man who was driving a brown, American-made car that followed Laurie Myles as she headed to a Bible study class in Northridge to pick up her teen-age daughter.

Myles, a devout Christian, was gunned down in front of her 9-year-old son, who provided police with the description of the men and their car.

The rewards have several sponsors: Councilman Hal Bernson sponsored a $25,000 City Council reward, and about $7,500 in private contributions has been raised, Lt. Kyle Jackson said. He added that telephones at the Devonshire Division will be staffed 24 hours a day until suspects are apprehended.

Jackson said the Latino was driving the car, possibly an older Cadillac, Oldsmobile or Buick, when the two men pulled up next to Myles and stopped. The other man got out of the car and accosted Myles, then shot her through the heart after she had given him her purse.

“We know there are individuals out there who have information about this case,” Jackson said. “This kind of case must be solved and the Los Angeles Police Department is doing everything it can in terms of solving this case.”

Larry Hicks, Myles’ brother, also appealed to the families of the woman’s killers to turn them in.

“This family has felt very deep-seated pain and sorrow in this case,” Hicks said, blinking back tears. “It is more pain than we have ever felt. . . . My sister has three kids--two girls who will grow up and not have the opportunity of their mother seeing them get married, a little boy who will grow up without his mother watching him play baseball.”

Detective Tom Broad, who is heading the investigation, said more than 100 calls have come in to the station, but no significant leads have emerged. He said other Los Angeles Police Department divisions and law enforcement agencies have reported similar robberies by a similarly described pair of suspects.

But, Broad said he couldn’t say whether the suspects in the other cases were the same two men being sought in the Myles slaying.