Model’s Body Recovered From Angeles Forest

After eight hours of sifting through dirt and rocks, searching for evidence in a shallow grave, authorities airlifted the body of missing calendar model Linda Sobek from an out-of-the way corner of Angeles National Forest on Saturday afternoon.

The former Raiderette was identified by family friends from a snapshot--taken by investigators just after her body was pulled from the grave--viewed at the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lakewood station.

Sobek’s parents, accompanied by friends and family attorney Wayne Willette, were summoned to the station Saturday evening. But her parents decided not to look at the photo after friends advised against it, Willette said.

“She was in remarkably good shape,” Willette said, considering that her body had been buried for more than a week.

Sobek’s body was retrieved one day after auto magazine photographer Charles E. Rathbun, 38, led authorities to the rugged site, identifying a heap of freshly turned rocks and earth as the place where he said he had concealed Sobek’s body.

Rathbun, booked on suspicion of murder and held on $1 million bond, told police he panicked and dug the grave with his hands a few hours after accidentally running over Sobek with a sports vehicle during a photo session in a dry lake bed more than 40 miles away. But his account has not yet convinced investigators, who continue to express reservations about his story.

“We are very skeptical that Mr. Rathbun is telling the truth,” Capt. Dan Burt, head of homicide for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said Saturday. But he did not elaborate on his suspicions.

Willette said Sobek’s family “would like to believe that Linda wasn’t in fear or suffered, and that [Rathbun’s] story pans out. If her death was brought upon by a vehicle, that’s better than some ways of going.”

The photo of Sobek’s face that he saw showed no signs of trauma and “no indication of strangulation,” Willette told reporters camped outside the Sobeks’ Lakewood home. “At this point, there’s no evidence that she was sexually assaulted in any way,” he said.

For most of the day, Sobek’s parents held on to the hope that it was not the body of their daughter buried on the secluded hillside. “But the conclusion was inevitable,” Willette said.

Burt said authorities probably would not have found the grave if Rathbun had not showed them the location in the Pacifico Mountain area about 15 miles south of Palmdale. “It was very well-concealed and hidden in a place that is off the beaten path,” Burt said.

No more than two feet deep, the grave was so shallow that an arm could be seen protruding from the pebbly earth as investigators began their excavation. Burt said the body, which was lying beneath the dirt facing up, was clothed.

The coroner’s office is expected to confirm the identification through dental records and conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Sheriff’s deputies said the examination will include a check for evidence of sexual assault.

Members of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office and Sheriff’s Department spent Saturday at the grave site, painstakingly picking through the dirt and granite rocks with the help of a consulting archeologist.

A blue canopy had been placed above the grave to block the view of television camera crews hovering in helicopters.

As nightfall neared, the body was loaded into a helicopter and airlifted to the coroner’s office near Downtown Los Angeles.

At the home of Sobek’s parents, an impromptu memorial of carnation bouquets and Poinsettia plants, a black and white photo of Sobek and some candles had been left by the front door.

Among the visitors to the home was the Rev. Jim MacKinga of Baycities Community Church in Redondo Beach. Emerging from the house Saturday afternoon, MacKinga described Sobek as “a Christian lady” and “a wonderful gal” who had become increasingly religious in the last two years.

“She had accepted Christ in her life as her savior,” MacKinga said.

He visited Saturday to deliver a videotape of Sobek’s baptism last summer in a back-yard pool in Torrance, and her family spent the afternoon sharing memories of her life and viewing the video, Willette said.

“She cried at her baptism,” the attorney said. “It was very touching. . . . Linda was a good person. She was thoughtful, caring. She followed a career that was a vision she had had as a child.”

Sobek’s fate, her family believes, should serve as a warning to other models.

“When they go out for a shoot, don’t go alone,” said her father, Robert Sobek. “Go with another person or photographers. Go with somebody that you know--because you can see what happened here.”

A reward fund that was set up to help solve the mystery of her disappearance--and has generated about $100,000 in pledges--will be converted to a memorial fund in Sobek’s name and used to help battered women, Willette said.

Sobek was not an abused woman, he said, but her family wants the money used to help other women so that “Linda’s death will bring about positive change.”

Sobek, 27, disappeared Nov. 16 after leaving her Hermosa Beach home for a modeling assignment. Last week, a road crew worker found some of her personal photos in a trash can near the Clear Creek Ranger Station.

Rathbun was taken into custody Wednesday at his Hollywood home, where he threatened to shoot himself. In jail Friday, he attempted to slash his wrists with a razor blade, inflicting minor cuts before guards wrested the blade away.

Under questioning, police say, Rathbun slowly recounted his story: He had taken Sobek to the lake bed so she could pose for photos with a new type of luxury sport utility vehicle. While trying to teach her how to drive the vehicle in tight circles, called “doughnuts,” he lost control of the vehicle and accidentally struck her.

When he realized she was dead, Rathbun said, he loaded Sobek’s body into the vehicle and drove through the forest until he came to the secluded spot that would become her grave.

Times staff writers Bettina Boxall and Eric Slater contributed to this story.

* FOREST GRAVEYARD: Angeles Forest has a history of being used to hide victims. B1