SHADOW HILLS : Reward for Killer Jumps to $50,000

The reward for information leading to the capture of the killer of a 62-year-old Shadow Hills housewife has been doubled to $50,000, after family members matched a reward announced by the Los Angeles City Council.

But police said they still have no motives or suspects in the Nov. 18 shooting death of Virginia Hernandez, a mother of eight who was found dead of a single shot to the head just inside the door of her Johanna Avenue home.

News of the reward, announced Tuesday, has generated no leads as yet, said Detective Patty Ferguson of the LAPD’s Foothill Division.

“We didn’t get the reaction we were hoping for,” said Maritza Rubio of Los Angeles, a daughter-in-law of the victim.

The family announced the doubling of the reward during a press conference at the Hernandez home Tuesday after the $25,000 reward was approved by the City Council. Councilman Joel Wachs, who introduced the reward proposal, also was present.

“I think that could be the first time that’s happened,” said Gail Koretz, a Wachs spokeswoman, saying that it is at least very rare for a family of a slaying victim to match a City Council reward.

Hernandez’s son, 25-year-old Adrian, found his mother’s body in the living room when he and his father came home about 8 p.m. that night. They said at the time that she had apparently been shot after answering a knock at the door.

The family can only speculate about why the kind, well-liked woman, who only left the house for an occasional shopping trip, was killed. There was no sign the home was robbed.

Police hope that the family’s contribution will help heighten interest in the case.

The killing has been baffling to the police and very difficult for the family, Ferguson said. Hernandez was “the bond of that family, the glue that held them together,” she said.

The police have one lead, a male Latino in his early 20s who came to the Hernandez home twice the day before the murder. He reportedly had been asking for directions to a neighbor’s house, and then came back asking to borrow a pencil. But the neighbor reported that a man fitting that description never showed up at their house.

“We’d like to talk to this young man,” Ferguson said.

Those who have information in the case can call Ferguson at (818) 834-3104.