Sensational Deaths Make News, but Area Crime Has Dropped

Reported crime plummeted once again in the San Fernando Valley, as in most of the nation, in 1998, but you wouldn’t know it to look back on the year’s headlines.

To be sure, there was no O.J. Simpson trial or Rodney King beating dominating the news. But there was no shortage of crime news, either.

The murder of TV star Phil Hartman, at the hands of his suicidal wife, was arguably the most sensational crime story in the Valley this year.

The saddest, perhaps, were the beating deaths and forest burials of two kids from Pacoima.

But the strangest crime story of the year, the most baffling, bizarre and difficult to believe, turned out not to be a crime story at all.

That was the story of missing Hollywood screenwriter Gary Devore--or rather the story of the discovery of his body.

It was just after the first anniversary of Devore’s disappearance in the desert in 1997 that Douglas Crawford, an unemployed lawyer from San Diego, single-handedly solved the case. Crawford was armed only with newspaper clippings about the disappearance, and a logical mind.

Based on information from the news clippings, Crawford re-created Devore’s route from a ranch in New Mexico to his home in Santa Barbara County and followed it to the point where it crossed the California Aqueduct in Palmdale. There, he climbed down the embankment and found debris from a white Ford Explorer--the type of car Devore was driving when he disappeared. On advice from Crawford, sheriff’s divers later found Devore’s body in the submerged sport utility vehicle.

Authorities questioned Crawford extensively, probing his possible involvement in Devore’s disappearance as well as his discovery, but eventually deemed the death an accident.

At one point Crawford even hired a criminal defense attorney, telling The Times, “I don’t want to be Richard Jewell-ed.”

Life Imitates Art?

Another crime story that wasn’t quite what it seemed, according to police, was the alleged gunpoint kidnapping of an Encino Bible study teacher from outside her Bel-Air church.

Laura Dekkers told police she was kidnapped by a masked man, bound at the hands and feet and forced into her trunk. She said she was driven to a Nevada casino parking garage where she eventually freed her hands and was able to call for help on her cellular phone.

But after a video camera showed a woman, not a man, at the wheel of the car as it entered the garage, other inconsistencies in Dekker’s story emerged, and police became skeptical of her account. The case remains unsolved.

The still unsolved case was remarkably similar, some said, to a recent movie starring actress Alicia Silverstone. In the movie, “Excess Baggage,” Silverstone fakes her kidnapping in order to gain her businessman father’s attention.

“We’ve got real crimes to solve,” one frustrated police source said.

In October, a courtroom murder drama surrounding a killing spree by the Asian Boyz gang was punctuated by the slaying of a key witness’ father. Police suspect Dong Dinh was gunned down outside his San Jose home in retaliation for his son’s testimony against his former cohorts in the gang. Dinh’s family criticized authorities for failing to offer them protection as Truong Dinh helped make the state’s case against the Asian Boyz.

A month later, another man was shot to death, allegedly to prevent his anticipated testimony in a Van Nuys courtroom. That man, James Navaroli, had left a witness protection program early, against the advice of police. In the wake of the two killings, the county Board of Supervisors called for a review of the witness protection program.

Deaths at Care Facilities

There were other crimes that exposed important issues.

In May, a man was found dead outside an unlicensed North Hollywood alcohol treatment facility. An alert police officer recalled finding a man under similar conditions before and called homicide detectives to the scene.

The death of Enrique Bravo and ensuing investigation led to the closure of a half-dozen unlicensed facilities where people allegedly were being force-fed alcohol in an effort to kill their urge to drink. At least two deaths were attributed to the practice, and numerous others remain under investigation.

Another case that remains under investigation is that of Efren Saldivar, who proclaimed himself an “Angel of Death” who killed up to 50 people. But in the media blitz that followed, the former respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Medical Center recanted his confession, telling a national TV audience that he made it up because he was suicidal and wanted to be found guilty of the killings and sentenced to death.

Police have for months been poring over hospital records looking for possible victims, and exhumations are expected to begin early next year.

The most ubiquitous crime, or so it may seem from television news coverage, was the effort to elude police. The underlying crime that caused suspects to run in the first place was generally of little interest. But the sometimes hours long cat-and-mouse chase on area freeways often proved irresistible. The most notable chase occurred two months ago when the pursued was behind the wheel of a 15-ton 7-Up truck. Officers arrested the man without incident after they cornered him in a tree outside a Northridge apartment complex.

“I know I shouldn’t laugh about this, but I can’t help it,” LAPD Deputy Chief Michael J. Bostic said at the time. “We’re just glad no one was hurt.”

Serious Crime Down

Statistically, reported serious crime in the Valley dropped in every category in 1998, according to preliminary LAPD numbers.

Murders fell from 84 in 1997 to 75 in 1998, a decrease of 10.7%, according to statistics through last week. The number of reported rapes fell by nearly 6%, from 393 in 1997 to 370 so far this year.

The biggest drops were in robbery and auto theft, the latter having been an especially stubborn problem in the Valley for years. Reported robberies fell 14.6% from 1997 to 1998, while auto theft dropped by a remarkable 18.8%.

Perhaps the best news on the crime front in the Valley in 1998 was that no police officers were killed in the line of duty. Those in other parts of the city and throughout Southern California were not so fortunate.

Thursday: The year in Valley education.