VAN NUYS : $25,000 Reward Offered in Killing
The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of a 77-year-old woman stabbed to death during an apparent robbery in her Van Nuys home.
Councilman Marvin Braude proposed the reward to help police solve the Oct. 9 murder of Berneda McMackin who apparently was killed for the money she saved by recycling glass bottles.
Police believe the killer then set her house on fire to cover the crime.
“This especially brutal crime against a peace-loving senior citizen, beloved in her neighborhood, is shocking and troubling, all the more so for its senselessness,” Braude said in a statement.
Only two days after her slaying, another elderly woman was killed in Van Nuys, sending shock waves through the San Fernando Valley’s senior citizen community and prompting Councilman Joel Wachs last week to call for increased police patrols of neighborhoods populated by seniors.
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