The Pamela Vitale Murder - an out of tune riddle played on a fiddle

Horowitz recounts finding wife's body

Friend says TV legal analyst 'pretty sure' who bludgeoned wife

Wednesday, October 19, 2005; Posted: 9:40 a.m. EDT (13:40 GMT)

Horowitz: "I just told her, 'I love you, and you're beautiful.' "
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RELATED

• Police: Vitale beaten to death

• Mistrial in Polk case

• Polk claims self defense

• Trial is a family drama

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LAFAYETTE, California (CNN) -- High-profile defense attorney and TV legal analyst Daniel Horowitz said Tuesday he knew his wife, Pamela Vitale, was dead as soon as he saw her lying inside their temporary home Saturday evening.

"I took it all in, and I knew she was dead," Horowitz told CNN's Nancy Grace in an exclusive interview.

"You scream, you cry. But I just basically sat with her, and I just told her, 'I love you, and you're beautiful,'" Horowitz said.

"It didn't matter any more what was around her, or the horror," he said. "I had just so much time with Pamela, so I just looked at her face, and it was beautiful." (Watch Horowitz describe his last minutes with his wife's body -- 4:50)

After reporting her death to police, Horowitz said he was put in the back of a squad car and not allowed to return to the trailer to see his wife.

He was later taken to the police station, where he was placed in a room normally used for juveniles.

Horowitz, 50, said police monitored him as a person who might commit suicide, but he said he had no intention of killing himself.

Horowitz said he found Vitale, 52, when he returned from San Francisco to the mobile home where the couple was living while their dream house was being built nearby on a remote hilltop near Lafayette in Contra Costa County east of Oakland.

Medical examiners concluded Monday that Vitale died from blunt trauma to the head, said a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department.

Investigators were still on the property Tuesday looking for evidence.

Horowitz said he had been in San Francisco preparing for the trial of Susan Polk, accused of stabbing to death her millionaire husband in 2002.

The judge declared a mistrial Monday in the high-profile Polk case because of Vitale's slaying.

On Tuesday, Joseph Lynch, a tenant on Horowitz's property, dismissed as "ridiculous" the suggestion that police were focusing on him as a suspect, telling CNN he had nothing to do with Vitale's death.

"I am innocent. I have not been on the premises up there," Lynch said.

Officials have described Lynch as cooperative and said he is one of many people they have spoken with about the case.

Four months ago, Horowitz and Vitale petitioned for a restraining order against Lynch, charging that he was dangerous. But Horowitz told CNN they never had the order served because they feared inflaming the situation.

Lynch acknowledged he has had trouble with alcohol and drugs, including methamphetamines, for more than 20 years, but he said he has put those troubles behind him.

He said Horowitz had been supportive, even writing a letter on his behalf to the judge after he was charged with driving while under the influence.

"I've been a real jerk over the years, but now I'm clean, sober and trying to concentrate on the present and the future," Lynch said. He would not say how long he had been off drugs, only that he was "currently clean."

Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, said Monday that the case remains "wide open."

"We're looking at all possible theories and motives. We're not focused in one area," Lee said.

Ivan Golde, a fellow attorney and friend of Horowitz, said Tuesday on CNN's "Larry King Live" that Horowitz "is pretty sure who did this crime" but cannot identify the person publicly.

Golde had earlier said police were "zeroing in" on Lynch as a potential suspect.

In response, Lynch said, "It doesn't matter what he says. I didn't do it."

Golde, who is Horowitz's co-counsel in the Polk trial, said he was "confident" there was no connection between that case and Vitale's slaying.

Horowitz and Vitale had been building a 7,000-square-foot Italian-style mansion for the past two years. It was primarily her dream house and she supervised the project down to the last detail, Horowitz told CNN.

He said he is aware that media attention will "probably" turn to him as a suspect in his wife's death.

"I don't care," he said. "My wife is gone. ... It doesn't matter. What's the difference?"

Horowitz has represented numerous high-profile defendants and appears frequently as a legal analyst on cable television networks, including CNN.

Golde said Horowitz carried a gun because "he received threats from time-to-time."

"Dan had to protect himself," he said

CNN's Rusty Dornin and Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.

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The McDonalds Take Down

The Anatomy of a Commercial Real Estate Transaction

Identify Site Location: Walnut Creek McDonalds
Identify Jurisdiction: Local Friendly Officers (Pre-Chaplin) 
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AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT)

By Jon Peterson

Washington, D.C.-based AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT) and San Mateo-based Sares Regis Group of Northern California are planning to start development in May on the 260-unit Cadence apartment project in South San Francisco. The address of the project is 398, 400 and 405 Cypress Avenue.
The BIT has made an equity investment into the project of $143 million, as stated on the investor’s Web site. The project is being done in a partnership with the BIT and Sares Regis Group, and it has an official groundbreaking planned for May 17th. The projection is that the development will take 20 months to complete once it gets started.
Sares Regis feels that the site is a very strong location. “I think that the renters in the project will like that our project will be only a quarter mile walk to the Caltrain station. This will allow them to have public transportation either to San Francisco or Silicon Valley. The renters could also walk to downtown South San Francisco to get to shopping and entertainment locations,” says Ken Busch, senior vice president with Sares Regis Group of Northern California.
All of the apartments in the development will be market rate units. Some of the amenities in the project will include a rooftop lounge, fitness center and club rooms. The project will have five stories over two levels of parking.
“We are very excited to have this new project coming to our city. It will help with the demand for housing that we have. It will be part of our downtown specific plan that we approved in 2015 where at least 1,450 units could be added to our city going forward. Cadence will also replace a site that has been a vacant site for several years and was the home of an old Ford car dealership,” said Alex Greenwood, director of economic and community development for the city of South San Francisco.
The BIT has a significant presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to its 2016 fourth quarter report on its Web site, it has a portfolio in the region with a net asset value of $700 million. This region amounts to 15.3 percent of its $4.67 billion total net asset portfolio. Four of its top 10 holdings are based in the region. These are the San Pedro Square Apartments in San Jose, Hacienda Crossings shopping center in Dublin, the Alameda Landing Shopping Center in Alameda and an office building in Fremont. The trust has also invested $88 million of equity into the development of the 395-unit MacArthur Commons apartment development in Oakland, which broke ground earlier this year. This development is being done with the Trust and Houston-based Hines.

BIT’s long-term investment strategy is to build and maintain a stable and diversified pool of assets through the acquisition and development of core properties in target markets throughout the United States. Its major markets besides the San Francisco region include Seattle, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami and Philadelphia.

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OBIT: Susan Kennedy - Friend from Danville

bill kennedy - retired so good - Bay Alarm Company | LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-kennedy-356aa345

Clayton, California - ‎retired so good - ‎Bay Alarm Company

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OBIT: Kadeem Hodge

Man Arrested Saturday for Theft at Concord’s Sunvalley Mall Killed in Shooting on Sunday in Antioch

DECEMBER 4, 2017 15:21 PM · 38 COMMENTS

A murder victim has been identified by the Contra Costa County coroner’s office today as 19-year-old Antioch resident Kadeem Hodge, who was shot and killed early Sunday morning in his hometown, police said.

An Antioch resident with the same name was arrested a day earlier for allegedly shoplifting at the Sunvalley Shopping Center in Concord, but Concord police did not immediately confirm whether it is the same person, however, friends of the victim have confirmed he is the same man.

Antioch police found Hodge on Empire Mine Road at 2:27 a.m. Sunday with what appeared to be gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead where police found him.

Concord police on Saturday were patrolling the Sunvalley Shopping Center when shoppers alerted them to an alleged shoplifting case.

Witnesses provided a description of the suspect vehicle, which police found quickly as the vehicle entered the highway.

Officers pulled the vehicle over and found stolen merchandise from several stores.

Police said besides Hodge, they also arrested Tiana Mayberry of Antioch.

Hodge and Mayberry were arrested on suspicion of shoplifting, conspiracy and possessing burglary tools.

RELATED STORY w/PHOTOS: Pair Arrested for Allegedly Shoplifting from Sunvalley Mall on Saturday (PHOTOS)

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OBIT: Marie Coon

The Untimely Suicide of Marie Coon

MARIE WAS THE NORDSTROMS TAILOR WHO
TAILORED SUITS FOR
PETE BENNETT
WHOSE SUITS WERE LOST
WHEN HIS DRY CLEANER COMMITTED SUICIDE

WALNUT CREEK — Marie Coon is an Iraq war casualty. But not in the traditional sense.

Her stepson’s fatal injuries from a sniper attack in Iraq in 2007 ended up causing two deaths — his and hers.

“She was having a hard time dealing with Jimmy’s death,” her husband, Jim Coon said Friday. “She just kept saying how she missed Jimmy.”

On Mother’s Day — after struggling for more than two years to cope with the loss of the young man she loved as her son — Marie committed suicide by locking herself in the cab of a pickup truck at Lake Arrowhead with portable lighted barbecues and a pail of burning coals. She left a note, saying she wanted to be with Jimmy. She was 48.

sssss

“I’m just walking around pretty much in a daze,” said Jim, 51, who moved with his wife about a year ago from Walnut Creek to Paradise in Northern California. “I’m hoping that she’s in heaven. I’m hoping she’s with Jimmy. If she’s not, I hope she’s having a great life wherever she is. I never wanted to see her get hurt.”

Jim said he planned to attend Walnut Creek’s Memorial Day service Monday with his daughter and brother, to honor his son Army Pfc. James Coon and Cpl. Sean Langevin. Both were Walnut Creek soldiers who died in Middle East conflicts.

James, whom his parents called “Jimmy,” was a 22-year-old Las Lomas High graduate who died April 4, 2007, in Iraq. Langevin was a 23-year-old graduate of Ygnacio Valley High who died on patrol in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2007.

In the months after James’ death, Marie talked candidly to the Times on several occasions, expressing the highs and lows she felt as she tried to cope with her gaping loss. She was fiercely proud of her son and gratefully elated for the community recognition he received.

This included a public funeral in Civic Park, a memorial plaque at City Hall, a cross on the hillside in Lafayette, an engraved brick at the All Wars Memorial in Danville, a special teams football award in his name at Diablo Valley College, where he played, and the retiring of his No. 90 high school football jersey at Las Lomas.At the other end of the spectrum, though, Marie grappled daily with overwhelming grief.

“I just start to cry for no reason,” she said in the fall of 2007. “My husband calls them ‘the moments.’ He’ll say, ‘Are you having a moment?’ I’ll just say, ‘Yeah,’ and he’ll know what it’s about. I’ve had days where I’ve been reduced to tears only once. But other days, it’s been all day long.”

She joined the ranks of Gold Star Moms when Jimmy died — a sisterhood of mothers who have lost their children in the military. The women supported each other, talking about their grief.

“It doesn’t go in any smooth order where it gets easier,” Marie said tearfully. “All of a sudden, you have a day that’s worse than it was three months ago. You can’t even anticipate what will set you off.”

She smiled as she reminisced about the happiness Jimmy brought into her life, when he was in sixth grade and she was dating his father.

Jimmy’s biological mother died when he was 9 years old, eight years after his parents divorced.

Marie married his father a year later and cherished her role as Jimmy’s mother — watching him grow up, cheering him on at football games and talking to him about the joys and sorrows in his life.

“I just want to see him,” she said longingly. “I just want to talk to him about anything.”

She refused to bury Jimmy, because she didn’t want to leave him behind if she moved away. Jimmy was cremated and the family spread his ashes at Lake Tahoe, after Marie visited clairvoyant Lisa Williams. Marie believed Jimmy told her through the medium that he wanted the lake to be his final resting place. The couple’s marriage deteriorated and Jim said Marie left him in March, after they tried counseling. He filed for divorce, but it was never finalized.

“I think she just pretty much fell out of love for me,” Jim said. “She didn’t have a purpose in life any more. She really loved Jimmy.”

Jim plans to spread Marie’s ashes in Lake Tahoe.

“I’m going to do the same thing as I did with Jimmy,” he said, “so she could be with him.”

Marie’s note said she did not want a memorial service. But, a makeshift memorial has appeared among the crosses in Lafayette.

“RIP Marie Coons,” it says. “Jimmy’s Mother. Died from a broken heart by her own hand.”

Representatives of military family support groups contacted by the Times said they had never heard of a parent committing suicide after the death of a child in war. Yet, Marie’s decision to take her life is a tragic reminder that such a loss creates an emotional ripple effect in the families of soldiers who are killed, leaving wounds that sometimes never heal.

Reach Theresa Harrington at 925-945-4764 or tharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com.

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OBIT: Leon James Dwulet Jr. Walnut Creek Real Estate Investor

Leon James Dwulet Jr.

1949 - 2016 Obituary Condolences

Leon James Dwulet, Jr.

October 8, 1949 to October 25, 2016

Jim Dwulet tragically passed away Tuesday, October 25th, in an aviation accident. Jim grew up in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and attended Peddie School. He played golf at Stanford University and won numerous amateur golf titles through his college years. Jim lived in the Orinda area for over 40 years, investing in and developing real estate. For 43 years, he made regular appearances at Stanford sporting events and tailgate parties. Despite his new west coast roots, Jim was a passionate Yankee fan throughout his life. He loved his sports and his wide circle of friends. Jim continued to play golf at a very competitive level and kept all his golf buddies laughing while he challenged them to play their best. Jim's passion for fly-fishing, in both salt-water flats and fresh water rivers, took him and his friends to remote places as often as possible. In 2015, Jim became a very proud and very adoring grandfather.

Jim is survived by his beloved daughter, Lauren, his precious seventeen-month-old grandson, James, son-in-law Greg Cosso, who became one of his best pals, and Lauren's step-brothers, Will and Nick. In addition, Jim is predeceased by his brother, Fred and survived by his sisters, Donna, Joan, and Caroline, brother, John, and numerous friends, who considered him family. Jim will be immeasurably missed.

A Celebration of Jim's life will be held on Friday, November 4th, at 1:30 pm at Orinda Country Club. Donations in his honor can be made to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (https://www.bcrfcure.org).

Published in San Francisco Chronicle from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3, 2016
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=182209607

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