It may be known for sun, surf, sand, and star power, but Los Angeles County is also home to more than 9 million people — which means that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is tasked with investigating a vast number of harrowing cases. Among these crimes are “the most brutal and complicated murders,” as Homicide: Los Angeles informs viewers at the start of each of its five episodes.
From Law & Order creator Dick Wolf, Wolf Entertainment, and Alfred Street Industries, Homicide: Los Angeles gathers veteran detectives, prosecutors, and victims’ loved ones to tell their stories. From the years-long murder prosecution of record producer Phil Spector to the tragic death of young mother Teresa Broudreaux, which remained unsolved for more than 20 years, Homicide: Los Angeles delves into murders covering a span of four decades. The series retraces each case’s complicated path to justice while remembering each of the deceased through the eyes of their friends and families.
The five-part series is executive produced by Wolf along with Tom Thayer, Jane Lipsitz, Dan Cutforth, Nan Strait, Dan Volpe, and Adam Kassen. Read more about each Homicide: Los Angeles episode below.
“There’s something special and different about celebrity cases,” says former LA deputy district attorney Alan Jackson. “And it’s always been Los Angeles that seems to be the epicenter of those types of cases.” When the rich and famous behave badly, it often falls on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to bring them to justice. In 2003, a vibrant actor named Lana Clarkson was found shot dead at Pyrenees Castle, the Alhambra mansion belonging to Phil Spector. As law enforcement officials gathered more information, it became clear that Spector had a long history of violent encounters, from altercations with recording artists to romantic prospects. At trial, numerous women came forward with stories of Spector pulling a gun on them when they refused his advances, but the jury’s inability to come to a unanimous decision resulted in a mistrial.
What happened at Phil Spector’s retrial?
By the time Spector’s second trial commenced, it had been more than five years since Clarkson’s death. This time, the jury found Spector guilty. He was sentenced to 19 years to life and died in prison on Jan. 16, 2021, at the age of 81.
In 1988, internationally renowned race car driver Mickey Thompson and his wife, Trudy, were murdered by two gunmen outside their home. Witnesses told authorities that two men fled the scene on 10-speed bikes, but investigators were unable to track down the shooters. Suspicions that the murders were the result of a robbery gone awry dissipated when jewelry and money were found left at the crime scene. Subsequent interviews led investigators to Michael Goodwin, but he had an alibi. Then he left the country, and the investigation remained at an impasse for many years.
How were the Thompson murders eventually solved?
After the officer in charge of the case retired in 1994, Mark Lillienfeld took over and reviewed it with fresh eyes. Goodwin, one of the suspects in the Thompson slayings, had come back to the United States the year prior and was arrested and convicted for fraud. When he was paroled, Lillienfeld met Goodwin at the airport and posed as a fellow passenger to get to know his mark. Ultimately, a retelling of the unsolved murder on America’s Most Wanted led to tips that tied Goodwin to the crime. One of his ex-girlfriends said he had bragged to her about having arranged the killing. A neighbor had seen him sitting in a car near the Thompsons’ house just days before the murder. Although the actual gunmen have never been found, prosecutors convicted Goodwin for his involvement in Mickey and Trudy’s deaths. He received two consecutive life sentences.
On one fateful night in 1980, a young couple had a disagreement after returning home from a house party. The husband, Ronnie Fematt, decided to return to the party, while his wife, Teresa Broudreaux, who was pregnant at the time, went off by herself after first stopping at her sister’s. The next day, she was found slain on Malaga Cove in Palos Verdes Estates, California. As the search for answers got underway, Fematt emerged as a possible suspect — for both authorities and Broudreaux’s family. Even after Fematt established his innocence through an iron-clad alibi, the family’s suspicions lingered for years. When the case went cold, Fematt became estranged from his late wife’s family, including her daughter from prior to their marriage.
How was Teresa Broudreaux’s murder solved?
In 2013, more than 30 years after the five-months pregnant Broudreaux was killed, technological advances allowed the authorities to reopen the case. With the aid of DNA testing, they identified a former convict named Robert Yniguez. In 1981, he’d been arrested for sexually assaulting another woman but walked free when the victim stopped cooperating with the investigation. He was convicted of another rape soon thereafter and served time in prison. Though Yniguez told detectives he’d never met Broudreaux, he was unable to explain the presence of his DNA. In 2019, he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life.
Actor turned film executive Gavin Smith’s extramarital affairs were scrutinized when he went missing in 2012. Investigators wondered if he’d run off with one of his mistresses or if his wife had wanted him dead as payback for his infidelity. After learning that Chandrika Creech, one of Smith’s girlfriends, was the last person Smith had spoken to on the phone on the night he disappeared, the authorities went to her home to learn more about their relationship. During that interview, Creech’s husband, John, pulled into the cul-de-sac, noted the presence of police, and abruptly left — which aroused the officers’ suspicions. “A duck’s a duck,” says homicide detective Ty Labbe of their hunch regarding John Creech, an ex-convict with connections to narcotics. “If I see a duck, and it looks like a duck, walks, talks like a duck, I don’t know, it might be a fucking duck.” Cell phone tower pings revealed that on the last night Smith had been seen, his mobile device had been in close proximity to both Creeches, confirming the detectives’ belief that they were responsible for his death. But just as law enforcement began to concentrate their efforts on the Creeches, a call came in: Smith had been spotted at a restaurant in Morro Bay, California.
How was Gavin Smith found?
When the Morro Bay tip turned out to be wrong, authorities redoubled their efforts to pursue John Creech. They tracked down acquaintances who had interacted with Creech in the days following Smith’s disappearance and learned that one had gone with him to move Smith’s car and dispose of the dead man’s phone. Another had let Creech store the car at his home until the smell of decomposition alerted him to what was going on. Chandrika’s father told investigators that his daughter had said John killed someone.
The pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together. When a dog in Palmdale, California, went off-leash and returned with a human bone in its mouth, authorities finally found Smith’s remains. After getting Chandrika to share the real details of what happened on the fateful night, John Creech was convicted — of voluntary manslaughter, rather than premeditated murder. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, but subsequent drug charges will keep him in prison for far longer.
After Bruce Koklich had called authorities to report his wife, Jana, missing, he said he couldn’t imagine where his wife could have disappeared to — but they’d received some disturbing voicemails lately. Jana’s father was a California politician who’d been prosecuted for criminal activity, so there was a possibility she’d been abducted by an enemy of his. Also, the Kokliches were involved in real estate, and Jana had been known to collect rent with a gun in case anyone hassled her. While Bruce claimed that they’d spent the weekend together before not showing up for work on Monday, detectives learned that Jana had missed her Saturday appointments — which was uncharacteristic — and that the couple hadn’t answered phone calls all weekend.
When Jana’s car was found with blood in the back cargo area, a luminol test showed that her blood had also been in their bedroom. It was time for Bruce to come in for more questioning, but he refused a lie detector test. While he’d been appealing on local television for information regarding the whereabouts of his wife, detectives learned from various women that the grieving husband had been soliciting them for dates.
What happened to Jana Koklich?
Bruce’s womanizing behavior preceded Jana’s disappearance, and it seemed that she was in the process of establishing a life independent of him. Because they were business partners, her leaving would’ve had significant financial implications for him. What’s more, each of the Kokliches had a $1 million life insurance policy.
When an eyewitness said that they’d seen Bruce sitting alone in a car like Jana’s on the Sunday before he reported her missing, it seemed he may have been responsible for her death. But because Jana’s body was never found, there was a lot of risk in attempting to bring him to justice. After a jury deliberated for six days, the judge declared a mistrial. A second trial resulted in a sentence of 15 years to life, but Jana’s whereabouts remain unknown.
