Couple Found Slain in Burning House

An elderly West Hills couple were found slain in their bed, and their home was set afire early Monday in an apparent attempt to cover up the crime, police said.

Firefighters responding to a small blaze at a residence in the 7200 block of Pomelo Drive made the grisly discovery shortly after 7 a.m. as they entered the home of William Lasky, 76, and his wife, Bertha, 73, authorities said.

The couple had just returned Saturday from a Caribbean cruise, friends said.

“They were just really good people,” said neighbor Deborah Dobson, who had known the Laskys for five years. “I’m just really upset. I can’t believe this happened. We’re all pretty shocked here.”

Although nearly three dozen personnel from the Los Angeles Police Department were at the scene, only scant details were released.

“The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call of fire and smoke at the back portion of the residence at 6:20 a.m., then found the bodies of a male and female couple in their late 70s and called LAPD West Valley homicide detectives,” said Dawn Danko of police press relations.

LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division, which handles high-profile cases, has taken over the investigation, according to Capt. William Sutton of the West Valley Division.

The Laskys had lived for 25 years in the three-bedroom home in the middle-class neighborhood on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley, roughly three miles north of the Ventura Freeway.

Longtime friends Ida and Jeffrey Cohen of Woodland Hills said William Lasky was retired from a cable company and Bertha was retired from Kaiser Permanente, where she was a home health care worker. She was also a docent at the Getty Center.

Jeffrey Cohen said the two couples, friends for 40 years, helped raise funds to establish Temple Solael in West Hills, which recently merged with Temple Judea.

The Laskys were always together, according to Ida Cohen.

“I used to say, ‘You’re making me crazy, the two of you. I can’t tell who’s Billy and who’s Bertha,’ ” Ida Cohen said.

The Laskys returned Saturday from a Holland America cruise to the Caribbean through the Panama Canal and back to California, according to Ida Cohen, who said Bertha Lasky called Sunday morning to tell her how much fun the trip was.

Cohen said the Laskys have three children: Beth Lasky, an associate professor of special education at Cal State Northridge; Debbie, who lives in Seattle; and Scott, a photographer in San Jose.

Jeffrey Cohen said that the Laskys were not known to wear expensive jewelry or have a lot of cash on hand. “I can’t understand why this would be a robbery, but I can’t understand what else it would be,” he said.

Neighbors on the quiet street were stunned with the news Monday. “Oh, my, we are shocked,” said Marcia McPherson, who lives two doors away from the Laskys. “It is a nice quiet area.”

Her husband, John McPherson, said the couple were pleasant and their house was a showplace because of the profusion of flowers in the frontyard. “They were just very nice, pleasant people and very good gardeners,” he said.

McPherson said he was awakened about 6 a.m. by the sound of a fire engine, but didn’t pay much attention because there was “not a lot of siren activity and just a whiff of smoke.”

Shortly before 7, he went outside to get the morning newspaper and noticed three fire engines, but not a lot of damage to his neighbors’ house and no police cars. Within an hour, he said, police were knocking on the McPhersons’ door, asking questions.

Michele Katz, who lives four houses away, said news of the deaths was “real scary.”

Katz, who met the couple at a neighborhood barbecue last July, said she thought “they were the nicest couple around.”