Couple Sought : Girl Left for Dead Tells of Abductors Who Killed Friend

From her hospital bed Sunday, a 13-year-old girl who was shot and left for dead described the assailant who wounded her and killed her 14-year-old companion in a remote canyon near Chatsworth.

The resulting drawing by a police artist showed a graying, middle-aged man who, with a woman companion, abducted the two Chatsworth girls near midnight Friday and shot them about an hour later, Los Angeles police said.

Calling the crime “brutal and extremely senseless,” Lt. Warren Knowles said Devonshire Division detectives hope to have a similar sketch of the woman sometime today.

The dead girl was identified as Wendy Masuhara, a 14-year-old ninth-grader at Lawrence Junior High School.

Police withheld the 13-year-old’s identity because of concern for her safety, Knowles said. She is under 24-hour police guard at an undisclosed hospital. Her condition is listed as stable, Knowles said.

Left for Dead

Both girls were shot in the head and left for dead inside an abandoned car along remote Woolsey Canyon Road near the Chatsworth Reservoir about 1 a.m. Saturday, shortly after their abduction from a quiet residential street in their upper middle-class suburban neighborhood.

The dead girl’s father, Allen Masuhara, a teacher at Castlebay Lane Elementary School in Northridge, said the girls had been watching television at the Masuhara home before they decided to walk to the other girl’s home. “It was a route they had taken many times before,” Knowles said.

“She was a very popular girl,” Masuhara said of his daughter. “The whole family is in mourning.”

A neighbor said the Masuharas, who had lived in the neighborhood for 15 years, were devoted to children. They also have a son, Glen, 16. The victim’s mother, Lynn, is a nurse with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“They’re nice, clean-cut kids, well-bred and very polite,” said the neighbor, who asked that his name not be used.

Area Considered Safe

The girls, who had been best friends for several years, lived only a block from each other--one on Lurline Avenue, the other on Limerick Avenue.

Knowles said the area, north of Devonshire Street, is considered “a safe neighborhood.”

“They walked to school together,” said the neighbor, who lives across the street from the Masuharas’ neat yellow home.

“What happened is just so shocking,” he said. “You’d swear in this neighborhood anybody would be safe. I guess we’re all going to have to rethink our activities. We’re going to have to be more cautious, more observant.”

He described both victims as “innocent, beautiful girls.”

“I grew up with Wendy,” said Karen Seeger, 18, who lives next door to the Masuharas. “She was so nice. Everybody liked her.”

Good Student

Another neighbor said she was a “sweet, beautiful girl” and a good student.

The 13-year-old told police that she and Wendy Masuhara were approached by a woman standing on Limerick Street who said her motor home would not start and asked their help. They agreed to help the woman and entered the motor home, where the man was waiting, Knowles said.

The girls then were driven to the remote mountainous area, placed inside an abandoned 1976 Mercury station wagon, shot and left for dead. The 13-year-old victim, although dazed and bleeding, was able to get out of the car and walked a mile to summon help, police said.

The 13-year-old apparently “saw the bullet coming,” Knowles said, and held her hand to the back of her head.

“That saved her life,” the detective said. “She’s a fortunate young lady and law enforcement is fortunate that we have a victim who can describe her assailants.”

He said the bullet that wounded the girl in the hand and the neck is lodged in the back of her head and will be surgically removed.

Knowles said the girls were with the couple inside the motor home for about an hour before they were driven to Woolsey Canyon. They were shot with a .32- or .38-caliber gun, he said.

“We have no indication that the abduction was planned,” Knowles said. He refused to disclose whether the girls had been sexually assaulted, saying the investigation might be hampered.

The man was described as white, between 50 and 60 years old, having brown hair graying at the temples, about 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing about 170 pounds. The woman was said to be white, between 25 and 40, about 5 feet, 4 inches tall, with a slim build and straight brown, shoulder-length hair.

Their motor home was fairly new and either off-white or tan, Knowles said. The descriptions of the couple and their vehicle have been transmitted to all police agencies in the state, he said. Police also released drawings of the 20-foot motor home and its floor plan. Police received dozens of calls from the public saying they had spotted motor homes in the area.

‘Coming in Fast’

“We’re following up on all of them,” Knowles said. “But they’re coming in so fast we don’t have time to keep up.”

Residents said they had seen the motor home parked in the neighborhood eight or nine hours before the girls were abducted.

Police said they have no motive for the crime.

The 13-year-old “will recover from the bullet wound, but she’ll remember what happened the rest of her life,” Knowles said.

Meanwhile, Wendy Masuhara’s neighbors were talking of starting a scholarship fund in her name.

“Everybody wants to do something, but nobody knows what to do,” said a neighbor. “The whole neighborhood is in shock right now.”