Car May Be a Key Element in Case

As they delve into the case of Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt, authorities are homing in on the strange provenance of a silver 1999 Mercury Sable station wagon.

The car, according to investigators, was never registered to or owned by either woman. But police believe that it may have been involved in the death of one of the homeless men that Golay and Rutterschmidt are accused of taking out sizable insurance policies on.

A federal grand jury indicted the pair Tuesday on nine charges, including mail fraud and aiding and abetting a crime in connection with life insurance statements.

Court papers filed by federal prosecutors lay out what they suggest is a connection between Golay and the death of Kenneth McDavid.

Shortly after midnight June 21, 2005, Golay called the Automobile Club of Southern California from a Chevron gas station at Westwood and Santa Monica boulevards, according to an affidavit filed Friday in federal court.

She asked that a 1999 Mercury Sable be towed from that location.

The car’s license plate number was “unknown,” according to the court documents.

An hour later, McDavid was found dead a block away in an alley off Westwood just south of Wilshire, according to the documents.

He appeared to have been the victim of a hit-and-run accident. A coroner’s report later showed that he had died of multiple traumatic injuries to his upper body.

His clothing was torn, with visible tire marks or grease stains. He had alcohol and pain medication in his blood.

The car next popped up a few weeks later, in the 1700 block of Vista Street in Hollywood, according to court documents -- less than a mile away from Rutterschmidt’s apartment.

The vehicle was ticketed three times between July 15 and 20, and records indicated that it was impounded and determined to have been abandoned.

Impound records indicated that the vehicle had “front end damage,” according to the court filing.

The Mercury was eventually sold by Hollywood Tow to a person who was unaware of its past, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Jason Gonzalez.

Authorities might never have found the car, had it not been for a note in Golay’s day planner, which was seized two weeks ago, when investigators searched her house and car, according to the court papers.

A Post-it note on one page of the planner contained partial license and vehicle identification numbers for the Mercury, along with the name of its current owner.

Authorites say that person is cooperating with them. (LAPD detectives were allowed to take the car May 25, and a thorough search of it was conducted Friday.)

The car will be taken apart, checked for past damage and analyzed for human DNA to determine if it ever hit a pedestrian or bicyclist.

Prosecutors don’t explain in court papers why Golay would have the name of the car’s current owner.

In the months after McDavid’s death, the women collected more than $2 million from insurance policies they allegedly took out for the transient, with the pair listed as beneficiaries.