Arrest Near in Fatal Stabbing in Hollywood Hills, Police Say

Los Angeles police investigating the death of a 22-year-old woman found fatally stabbed in a Hollywood Hills bungalow were close to making an arrest, LAPD officials said Friday.

Ashley Lauren Ellerin, found dead in her rented home on Pinehurst Road on Thursday morning, had been stabbed multiple times, according to Det. Michael Pelletier.

Police were waiting for autopsy results to determine when Ellerin was killed. They would not say whether they had found a weapon, or whether there were signs of forced entry.

“We’ve got some good leads,” said Capt. Michael Downing, head of the LAPD’s Hollywood Division. “And we believe an arrest is imminent.”

Neighbors said Ellerin and her boyfriend had rented the wooden yellow bungalow just a few blocks from Hollywood Boulevard last fall.

“They sort of kept to themselves; nobody in the neighborhood seemed to know them,” said Brenda Wooding, who lives next door.

Wooding said Ellerin’s home often had many people coming and going. She said Ellerin and her boyfriend also drew attention in the neighborhood because they were in their early 20s and were renting a house in an area where similar properties go for about $2,500 a month.

Wooding said the neighborhood has experienced several home and car burglaries recently.

She said she saw Ellerin’s boyfriend in front of the house Thursday morning, crying and being comforted by friends.

Downing said police did not consider the killing a random act.

“The person who did this is not running around on the loose in that neighborhood, looking for victims,” he said.

Police gave few details on Ellerin, and members of her family would not comment. She was raised in Los Altos, about 45 minutes from San Francisco, and graduated in 1996 from Los Altos High School.