Death in the Hollywood Hills

It was February 2003. Somewhere in Hollywood, a young woman, Kristi Johnson was missing.

The veteran detective who was trying to find her knew she needed help.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: So, you had a press conference.

Det. Virginia Obenchain: We did.

Morrison: Did that help you in any way?

Det. Obenchain: It helped us tremendously.  We got a call from a young lady on our tip line, and she told us that she, too, had been approached at the Century City mall. 

Susan Murphy: I read an article a couple of weeks after what happened to me.  And, it mentions this beautiful young lady who disappeared after going to meet a photographer.  And that’s all it says.

Morrison: Yeah. It doesn’t really give any indication of who it was.

Murphy: Doesn’t give any indication of who it was at all.

Morrison: Well, what was your reaction when you read this?

Murphy: I call it “women’s intuition.” I just knew.  My heart dropped—

21 days before Kristi went to the mall to look for a Valentine’s gift,  Susan Murphy was approached by a man there too. He said he was in the business and his name was Victor Thomas. 

Murphy: He looked normal and he just said, “I think you’re very attractive. He said,  “I’m a director of photography and we’re casting for the new James Bond movie.”  And he said, “We’ve been casting all day and you’re the look we want, you’re perfect.”

Just a line, of course.

But what if it wasn’t?

What if the guy was for real?

Murphy: I’d had enough experience to kind of know that this was a come-on, a pick-up. And I knew that and—

Morrison: And yet?

Murphy: I was very intrigued. If it’s true, hey cool, that’d be great.  How fun would that be, to be a “Bond Girl”? I think every girl has a dream about that.

And five years before Susan, there was Cathy Debuono.

Cathy Debuono: He told me he really liked my legs and that he was working closely with the James Bond movies and that they were looking for new people, people who weren’t so recognizable.

At the time, Cathy was pretty much a regular in bit parts on “Deep Space Nine,” but this offer was something else.

Debuono: He talked about “big bucks.”  He named numbers of money that I can’t recall today, but it was a lot of money. 

He said he was a Disney executive named Brian. 

Morrison: Was it like he was coming onto you?

Debuono: No, no. He wasn’t lascivious at all.  He didn’t try to touch me.  He didn’t try to flirt with me or come onto me.  He seemed like he could be legitimately in the business and talking to me about a real opportunity.

The women talked to Det. Obenchain and gave her some clues about the man that Kristi might have met. And there was key information that Susan had to offer: she said the man told her to wear a very specific outfit to the audition.

Murphy: He said it’s very important that I wear stilettos.  Black stilettos as high as possible. And then he said a black mini-skirt preferably but any mini-skirt would be great.  Panty hose, pantyhose not nylons, a white man’s shirt, hair slicked back really tight in a ponytail. And a man’s tie. And he said he would provide the tie.

Det. Obenchain: And, that happens to be everything that Kristi purchased on February 15.

In the hours before she disappeared, Kristi Johnson bought a black mini skirt, sheer nylons, stiletto heels, and the white shirt.

Was she nervous?  Was she excited?

Susan in 2003 and Cathy in 1998 agreed to meet the pleasant stranger. But they were a little nervous and just in case, each decided to bring a male friend along.

Cathy followed instructions to drive to a particular address.

Debuono: I was instructed by him to wait in my car in an area of the block where he told me to park.  He said, “Bring your car here, park here—someone will come out and get you.”

Morrison: What happened?

Debuono: Nothing.

Morrison: Nothing?

Mind you, the male friend in the car with her was perfectly visible. “Brian from Disney” never showed.

Susan Murphy got out of her car, left her boyfriend there, down the street, watching as she walked to a busy intersection just as the man had instructed.

Morrison: What percentage of this was thinking it might be real, and “I wanna be there if it is”?

Murphy: I would say 40 percent I thought it was real, 60 percent I knew it wasn’t.

Then the man showed up. Pointing behind him, he said "let’s go get a drink."

Murphy: I noticed it was an abandoned building it looked like to me.  It didn’t look like there was any sort of activity or any kind of bar or restaurant in there.  So I thought, “Okay.” 

I said, “Well, first of all, I’m not going anywhere with you.” I said, “I need some identification first.”  I said, “That’s first and foremost.”  And he said, “Oh I don’t have any identification.”  I said “You don’t?”  I go, “Where is it?”  He goes, “I left it on the set.”

Morrison: On the set?

Murphy: On the set.

And so, Susan said, “I’m not going anywhere.” Then she signaled to her friend in the car,  and the man got angry. 

Morrison: He realized you were with somebody.

Murphy: Realized I was with somebody. It’s like, you know, “You’re not right for the part anyway.”  He’s like “Just forget it.”  And then he goes and starts to walk away.

With Susan Murphy’s help, the police made up a sketch of that man who had promised a part in a Bond movie.

Police sketch

Det. Obenchain: Once we aired the sketch, we had a parole officer call us and said, “That happens to be one of my parolees.”

He had a name. It wasn’t "Victor Thomas," as he’d told Susan Murphy. It wasn’t, as he’d told Cathy Debuono, "Brian from Disney." 

His name: Victor Paleologus—a parolee with no connection to the film industry at all.

Morrison: So you have a suspect, or at least you know who the suspect is.  How do you proceed now?  As if she is still alive?

Det. Obenchain: Absolutely as if she’s still alive. 

MORE FROM DEATH IN HOLLYWOOD HILLS

Death in Hollywood Hills Section Front

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: