Renata Johanna Reich, 66, died on Sunday, April 16, 2000, in Glendale. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 192 Wonderview Drive. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Glendale Police Department case.
Reich was found dead on the lawn of the home she shared with her husband, Allen, early that Sunday morning, in the 100 block of Wonderview Drive in the Verdugo Mountains area of Glendale. Police ruled the death a homicide after an autopsy showed she had died of head trauma, the Glendale News-Press reported.
Her family described a warm and generous woman. "She had a wonderful heart," her husband told the paper. Her stepson remembered her as "always upbeat and friendly." She had never hesitated to lend a helping hand, the News-Press wrote, "whether it was taking in a stray cat or planning her stepson's wedding." Reich was born in Germany and moved to the United States in 1962. She spent more than 30 years in the escrow business, much of it in the Glendale area, and met her husband, a railroad engineer, when she handled the escrow on a house he was selling. Now retired, the couple had been planning to travel more, including a trip to Germany. She had asked that her ashes be returned there.
Her colleagues in the real estate industry set up a reward fund through the Glendale Association of Realtors for information leading to an arrest, and asked that donations be made in place of flowers. Reich's family said she had often given money to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "She loved all animals," her husband said.
Neighbors were shocked. One described the street as very quiet, saying, "You never hear anything. You don't see anybody." Police and neighbors said the street drew a younger crowd in the evening hours because of its view over Glendale. More than a year later, in July 2001, police said they still had few leads. They declined to give details of the investigation but said the attacker "might not have meant to kill her," and they believed a passerby might have information. They asked anyone who saw or heard anything unusual from the night before her death until 6 a.m. to come forward, "however slight it might seem."
Glendale is a large city just north of downtown Los Angeles, bordered by the Verdugo Mountains and the San Gabriel foothills. Wonderview Drive is a quiet residential hillside street with sweeping views of the city below, the kind of place where residents keep to themselves and visitors come at night to look at the lights.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Renata Johanna Reich could be found in news archives or public records. More than 25 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who was on or near Wonderview Drive on the night of April 15, 2000, or in the early hours of April 16, may have seen a car, heard voices or noticed something that did not seem important at the time. 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 Glendale Police Department, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
