Iola Lynn Simms was 40 years old when her body was found on Saturday, June 25, 2005, in Griffith Park in Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, she died of stab wounds near 2800 E. Observatory Road. Her death was ruled a homicide. The Los Angeles Times entry lists no investigating agency, but Griffith Park lies within the city of Los Angeles, which suggests the case belongs to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The coroner's record describes her as a white woman. A few more details appeared later in the press. LA Weekly included her in a list of women killed in Los Angeles County, under the name "Carrie Bradley, a.k.a. Iola Lynn Simms." The paper reported that she was "found June 25, 2005, in Griffith Park" and gave the cause of death as "multiple stab wounds to the face, neck and shoulder."
It added: "Her partially clothed body was found by joggers about 10 days after she died."
That detail means the June 25 date in the coroner's listing is most likely the day she was found rather than the day she was killed, and that she may have died around the middle of June. A later article about crimes in Griffith Park repeated that she "was discovered on E. Observatory Road in Griffith Park in June 2005, 10 days after her death," and noted that the case was still listed as unsolved.
The second name, Carrie Bradley, suggests she was known to some people by a different name, perhaps a married name or one she used day to day. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found under either name. The record does not say where she lived, how she came to be in the park, whether she was killed there or brought there afterward, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect. The partial clothing and the location may suggest she was attacked or left in a secluded spot, but no source says what happened in her final hours.
Griffith Park is one of the largest urban parks in the United States, covering more than 4,000 acres of hills, canyons and trails in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains. Observatory Road winds up through the park to Griffith Observatory, one of the best-known landmarks in Los Angeles, with views of the Hollywood Sign and the city below. The roads and trails draw hikers, joggers and tourists by day, but large parts of the park are steep, brushy and quiet, especially at night.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Iola Lynn Simms 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 knew her as Iola Simms or as Carrie Bradley, who saw her in mid-June 2005, or who was near Observatory Road in Griffith Park in the days before June 25, may hold information that could help detectives. 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 call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
