Crime Ruled Out in Death of Talk Show Host’s Mother

The mother of radio talk show personality Laura Schlessinger was not killed, as police initially suspected, but died of heart disease, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office ruled Wednesday.

The decomposed body of Yolanda Schlessinger, 77, was found in her Beverly Hills condominium in December. Neighbors said they had last seen her in September.

Police said then that they were pursuing a homicide investigation based on information they wouldn’t specify. The home also appeared to have been ransacked.

An initial autopsy did not reveal a cause of death.

But further investigation showed that she died of natural causes, said coroner’s spokesman David Campbell.

“What we’re talking about here is coronary artery disease, or the buildup of plaque and hardening of the arteries,” Campbell said. “We observed a significant blockage in the arteries, and typically this can lead to a heart attack.”

He said the condominium, although in a “state of disarray,” was not ransacked.

Laura Schlessinger, 56, who advises listeners about families and relationships on her radio program, had talked often about being estranged from her mother.

In a 1994 People magazine profile, she said the estrangement began in 1986 when her mother walked off the job as her secretary.

After her mother’s death, Schlessinger said she was “shocked and horrified” by the suspicion of a crime and “overwhelmed by sadness,” but blamed their estrangement on her mother.

Yolanda Schlessinger had lived in the building in the 400 block of North Palm Drive two or three years with a noisy, parrot-like bird, neighbors said.

When her body was discovered, several neighbors said they had stopped hearing sounds from the bird several weeks earlier.