Death in the Hollywood Hills

Keith Morrison Correspondent • Profile

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. - Every day is a bumper crop of hope here in Hollywood, California. 

The dreamers can be naive, of course.  Everybody knows. But still they come from all over to play their slim chances. Maybe lightning will strike, someone will be chosen as the next “Renee” or “Scarlett.”

This story is about Kristi Johnson. She came here from Michigan, in 2001,  to invent herself.

Terry Hall, Kristi Johnson’s mother: “She thought, 'I would really like to be involved in this industry but on the production side of it, on the other side of the camera.'”

But she was so pretty.  And she had that “something,” even back in high school.

Why didn’t she try out in front of the camera, people would ask. Couldn’t Kristi be an “it” girl, too?

God knows, it’s happened before.

They say it’s a myth, the story of Lana Turner’s discovery as a nobody at a drug store lunch counter. But the myth is part of that young, hopeful DNA now, just as the other one is: The story of the girl whose ambition bought fame only after her blood-drained body had been dumped in a vacant lot.  We know her now as the “Black Dahlia.”

Of all the legends born under the Hollywood sign on the hill, these two endure... two parts of a whole. They entice young hopefuls drawn to the scent of fame, and sometimes, kill them.

But Kristi Johnson had other things to think about.  She was 21.  She was in California.

Hall: Kristi loved the beach. And she told me you know how beautiful it was and how much she was enjoying being in California.

Back in Michigan, growing up, she was athletic and had a passion for the water. And then she started turning heads.

Hall: She could you know tie her hair back in a ponytail and wear no make-up and look absolutely smashing. Or she could put on her high heels and a great outfit and look a totally a different way too.

They were very close and spoke on the phone every day.

Hall: We enjoyed being with each other and doing things together. 

It was the day after Valentine’s Day, 2003, a Saturday. Kristi called her mom, said she was going to the mall.

Hall: And I said okay, great: “You know, don’t buy anything. Pick something out and it’ll be your Valentine’s present.”

By Sunday, Kristi should have called again.  She did not. 

Hall: And I thought, “Now that’s strange.”

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: Kind of a low-grade anxiety?

Hall: Right, like, “Gee I wonder what’s happening here that I can’t get a hold of her.”

Then two days went by—no answer. No call.

Hall: So when I couldn’t get a hold of her on her cell phone and I called her on her direct line at work. And when I got her answering message on her work phone is when I became very alarmed.

Terry filed a missing person’s report with the Santa Monica Police.

Morrison: Do you remember getting the case?

Det. Virginia Obenchain, Santa Monica Police Department: I do.

Veteran police detective Virginia Obenchain doesn’t rattle easily, but she knew right away that Kristi Johnson’s case was going to be bad.

Det. Obenchain: The original patrol officer that was sent to take the missing persons report didn’t feel too good about the circumstances, so he came upstairs to the detective bureau, and I was the only one upstairs.  So he told me, and I remember when he explained the circumstances, the hair on the back of my neck started to rise.

The circumstances?

Det. Obenchain: We talked to the roommate, and the roommate told us that she had gone to Century City mall, went shopping there and was very excited when she came home because she was going to audition for a James Bond clip.

Det. Obenchain didn’t need to be told that con-men prey on young women in this town. Or that smart and savvy women can be seduced by the Lana Turner fantasy.

Det. Obenchain: There are some girls that will go with perfect strangers in the hopes that they can make it big. They don’t know Hollywood.  They just come in, and they figure, “Oh, back in the old days where you used to meet at the drug store counter and then you’re all of a sudden a star.”

Morrison: Sure. The drug store discovery.

Det. Obenchain: Exactly.  And some gals still believe that that can happen.

Morrison: Does it?

Det. Obenchain: Not that I know of.

Where was Kristi Johnson?

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Death in the Hollywood Hills Remembering Kristi Johnson Morrison: A Hollywood dream-turned-nightmare Crime scene photos Did the suspect prey on other attractive women? Timeline: Paleologus' dark history Kristi's mom: A fountain of joy in Kristi's memory Victor Paleologus' letter to the judge Death in Hollywood Hills Section Front   Add Death in Hollywood Hills headlines to your news reader: