Kidnapers Release Victim, Spurn $800,000 Ransom

Pasadena police were wondering Thursday why the kidnapers of a 26-year-old man, the son of a prominent local family, freed him without picking up the $800,000 ransom.

Lawrence Gray Jr., float chairman for the Tournament of Roses Parade, took the money in a duffel bag to a Highland Park meeting spot on Tuesday in an attempt to ransom his son, Robert, who had been kidnaped that morning. But Robert Gray had been released unharmed in South-Central Los Angeles.

Police have arrested two women after tracing calls made to the father’s house and are seeking more suspects.

The kidnapers accosted Robert Gray at gunpoint just after 6 a.m. Tuesday as he was in the parking garage beneath his North Sierra Bonita Avenue condominium about to leave for work. He is general manager at Edmund A. Gray Co., a Los Angeles manufacturer of pipe nipples owned by his family.

The abductors blindfolded and bound Gray, then drove him in his Toyota pickup to a spot where they switched to another vehicle, police said.

“Obviously the motive is money,” said Pasadena Police Lt. Gene Gray, who is unrelated to the victim. The lieutenant said police are investigating the possibility that employees at the family business might be involved.

About 8:30 a.m., Robert Gray called his father’s San Pasqual Avenue home to say he had been kidnaped and that his captors were going to kill him if $800,000 ransom was not paid. Minutes later, Lawrence Gray received a second call from one of the kidnapers, who reiterated the message, and the father called police.

The kidnapers called again just after noon, instructing him to go to a location in Highland Park at 3 p.m. Undercover officers staked out the area and waited in vain for two hours for someone to show up. At 9 p.m., the kidnapers called a third time, telling the father to go to Debb Park in Highland Park. About 20 undercover police officers staked out that area.

A motorcyclist rode up to Lawrence Gray and asked if he had the money, Lt. Gray said. The father said yes and asked the man about his son. Instead of replying or taking the money, the man sped away.

About the same time, police said, the victim’s mother received a call from the LAPD’s Southeast Division, saying that Robert Gray had been found unharmed in an alley at Vermont Avenue and 92nd Street.

Walella Mayson, 32, of Norwalk, and Laura Melgar, 28, of Los Angeles, are in the Pasadena City Jail on suspicion of kidnaping.