Man Is Sentenced in 1983 Slaying

A judge on Monday sentenced a Cathedral City man to 16 years to life in prison for killing a San Fernando Valley nurse, bringing to an end a 22-year-old case that became one of the first undertaken by the Los Angeles Police Department’s “cold case” unit.

Edmond Jay Marr, 47, pleaded guilty last month to fatally stabbing Elaine Graham, who vanished on St. Patrick’s Day in 1983 after dropping off her toddler daughter with a nanny so that she could attend classes at Cal State Northridge.

Eight months after her disappearance, Graham’s body was found by hikers in a Chatsworth canyon.

“Everybody’s afraid of the boogeyman ... the crazy sociopath who will jump out at you in a parking lot,” said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin. “This was a case where he was a boogeyman.... They had never met before.”

Marr’s motives remain unclear. Evidence suggests he belonged to a cult and that he removed the victim’s clothing before stabbing her. “Whether it was a ritual killing or sexually motivated, we’ll never know,” Lewin said.

Early on, detectives suspected Marr, but prosecutors declined to press charges against him because of a lack of evidence.

In 2003, Marr was arrested after police used new technology to analyze DNA found on his dagger.

According to prosecutors, during the sentencing hearing in San Fernando, the victim’s daughter, Elise, now in her 20s, told Marr:

“You’ve given me a life sentence of a broken heart. You took from me the most important person in the world.”