Antonia Maria Yager was 86 years old when she was found dead in her home on Monday, December 22, 2014, in the Windsor Square neighborhood of Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds at her home in the 100 block of North Beachwood Drive. Her death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department West Bureau Homicide case.
Friends called her Toni. According to the LAPD, she was originally from Holland, came to the United States after World War II and found work as a nurse. She was the widow of former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas C. Yager, who died in 2008, and the couple had established a foundation in their name and gave often to charity. She was a member of the Assistance League and lived alone in her house. Neighbors knew her for taking in stray cats. "She was our cat lady," neighbor Erica Gilbert told the Los Angeles Times.
A longtime friend, Carolyn Layport, said, "She was a lovely woman. I respected her almost like a mother figure."
On the evening of Sunday, December 21, she attended a charity dinner at the Wilshire Country Club, and a friend drove her home afterward. "We just left her, and it was such a lovely evening, and then this horrible tragedy happened," friend Tricia Cardinale told NBC Los Angeles. The next day, a man who helped care for her many cats found her in her bedroom with stab wounds. Police said she had multiple stab wounds. Investigators did not rule out a home-invasion robbery or burglary, noting that she owned valuables including fine jewelry, but it was unclear whether anything had been taken.
In February 2015 Councilmember Tom LaBonge sponsored a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification, apprehension and conviction of those responsible. Detectives said they had few leads. They asked anyone who was near 1st Street, Beachwood Drive and Gower Street between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. on December 22, 2014, to call them. "We're baffled," friend John Franklin said. "She was the nicest lady in the world."
Windsor Square is one of the most established neighborhoods in Los Angeles, a district of large historic homes and tree-lined streets near Hancock Park that includes the official residence of the mayor. Her house stood about half a block from Larchmont Village, the small shopping street at the heart of the area. It is a quiet, residential place, which made the violence of her death all the more shocking to her neighbors.
By the mid-2010s Los Angeles was recording roughly 250 to 300 homicides a year, among the lowest totals in decades, yet many of those killings still went unsolved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Antonia Maria Yager could be found in news archives or public records. More than 11 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who was near Beachwood Drive on the night of December 21 or the morning of December 22, 2014, or who was offered jewelry or valuables in the weeks that followed, may hold the piece detectives need. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. West Bureau Homicide detectives can be reached at 382-9470. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
