Lily K. Terao was 85 years old when she died on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, in Gardena. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 15400 Denker Avenue. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Gardena Police Department case.
Her death began as a street robbery. The Daily Breeze reported in 2015 that she "was knocked to a Gardena sidewalk in 2005 when a thief grabbed her purse and ran." Two months later, in November, she fell into a coma and died of blood clots that had formed in her brain, and investigators connected those injuries to the robbery. The robbery case was then moved into the unsolved homicide column. The thief took about $120 in property, including the cost of her modest purse.
She never saw her attacker's face, and no other witnesses came forward. The only description police had was of a male, race unknown, and she told investigators that he was probably young because he moved so quickly. "They're an easy target. They're not as strong, they're not as fast, and at times they're more trusting of people, not as aware of their surroundings," said Gardena police Lt. Steve Pendergast, who investigated her case. The paper said an arrest was unlikely.
Her life had been a remarkable one. According to her obituary, Lily, whose Japanese name was Yuriko, was born in Seattle and lived in Gardena. Her daughter-in-law wrote that Lily was a nisei, a second-generation Japanese American, who went to high school in Japan and returned to the United States to work. During World War II she was sent to the Gila River internment camp in Arizona, where she had to destroy her Japanese belongings, including her high school diploma. Because she was fluent in both languages, she was soon recruited to go to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she taught Japanese language and culture to men training as military interrogators. She was survived by her twin sons, Donald and David, three grandchildren, and her sisters, Miyeko Obata of Gardena and Haruko Uematsu of Japan. Her funeral was held at Green Hills Memorial Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, and the family asked for donations to the World Wildlife Fund.
Gardena is a South Bay city long known as one of the centers of Japanese American life in Southern California, with Japanese markets, restaurants and community institutions. It has its own police department.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest. The death of an 85-year-old woman, injured by a purse snatcher and dying weeks later, shows how even a robbery for a small amount of money can become a homicide.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Lily K. Terao could be found in news archives or public records. More than 20 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Denker Avenue in Gardena in the fall of 2005 and remembers a young man running with a purse, or who heard someone talk about such a theft, may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Gardena Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
