Inmate Charged in Death of Woman, 74

Four months to the day after their investigation began, homicide detectives said Wednesday they have solved the exceptionally brutal killing of a 74-year-old woman found stabbed and strangled in her North Hollywood apartment last October.

James Gerald Moreen, 20, who lived in the same Vineland Avenue apartment building as the slain woman, was charged Wednesday with murder, rape and burglary with special circumstances--which could lead to a death penalty, authorities said.

Moreen now is serving a four-year state prison term in north Kern County for attempted rape, a sentence imposed last month in Van Nuys Superior Court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Cohen said.

The woman, Erina de Walden, described by her family as a former “masseuse to the stars,” was beaten, raped, stabbed and strangled, police said.

“She was literally brutally and sadistically murdered,” said Los Angeles Police Det. Gil Uribe of the North Hollywood station. “Not too many people could have survived an attack like this. It’s the most awful one I’ve dealt with.”

“It’s difficult to understand how any human being could hurt an old woman like this--there’s no explanation. This is a defenseless woman.”

When police began investigating the killing, they had little to go on--no witnesses and no sign of forced entry to De Walden’s apartment. Her wallet and credit cards were missing and her purse and cosmetics bag were dumped in a trash can in the apartment.

The victim’s daughter-in-law found De Walden bleeding, slumped dead on her bed after the family had not heard from her in days. She was last seen Oct. 13 when she went to a movie and dinner with a friend.

“It was a confusing whodunit to begin with,” Uribe said. “We had many, many sleepless nights . . . with a grieving family out there and a brutal beast out there.”

Uribe said Moreen was linked to the slaying through physical and forensic evidence, including DNA matches. He praised the Los Angeles Police Department’s criminalists and Cellmark Diagnostics in Maryland, which conducted the DNA testing and came under scrutiny last year for its conduct of DNA testing in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Uribe said Moreen’s younger brother regularly walked the woman’s dog at night; she gave him a key and paid him in cash. Moreen had been to De Walden’s apartment with his brother and knew she had some money and other valuable possessions, Uribe said.

He either used his brother’s key to enter the apartment or De Walden let him in because she knew him, Uribe said. He probably killed her Oct. 14 in the late afternoon, Uribe said.

Once inside the apartment, Uribe said, Moreen viciously attacked her and took some of her possessions. He shut the dog in the bathroom, Uribe said.

Moreen, who had lived in the apartment building with his younger brother and their mother since July, was unemployed. His family has since moved, Uribe said.

De Walden’s son and daughter-in-law could not be reached for comment Wednesday but Uribe said he has told them about the arrest of Moreen.

Cohen said he is seeking a court order to have Moreen brought to Van Nuys for an arraignment, expected in about two weeks.

The case will be reviewed to determine whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty or a life sentence without possibility of parole, Cohen said.

Family members had said that De Walden, who worked under the name “Egizia,” was a masseuse to a number of Hollywood celebrities, including actresses Lily Tomlin and Priscilla Presley.