Marla Raejean Ison, a 57-year-old white woman, was found dead in her Bell Gardens home on Nov. 18, 2014. According to Los Angeles County coroner records reported by the Los Angeles Times, the cause of death was strangulation. The address listed in reports places the death in the 5500-5569 block of Lanto Street in Bell Gardens.
Ison was identified in coroner records and noted in local accounts; press reports say officers were called to check her welfare the evening of Nov. 18 and discovered her body. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is listed as the investigating agency on the LA Times Homicide Report entry, and Bell Gardens police initially requested the welfare check. A MyNewsLA/City News Service dispatch reported that the coroner's assistant said the woman was in her 50s and that sheriff's homicide detectives assisted Bell Gardens police while an autopsy was pending.
Local news accounts from the time provide limited public detail about Ison's background, family or circumstances beyond the location, cause of death and agencies involved. There are reader comments and remembrances on the LA Times Homicide Report page, but no public statements in the sources reviewed that announce arrests, charges, an identified suspect, or a closure of the investigation. As of the available reports from November-December 2014 and the case entry located on the Homicide Report, the case remains unsolved.
The killing is listed as a strangulation death investigated with assistance from sheriff's homicide detectives; there are no publicly reported arrests or charges in the sources reviewed. Anyone with information should contact the Bell Gardens Police Department or the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau.
