Death in the Hollywood Hills

Feb 26, 2003 was Kristi Johnson’s 22^nd birthday. She’d been missing 11 days.

Her family held a vigil. The search continued.

Det. Obenchain: What we did was we started contacting the roommate, the credit card company, or the debit card company, the cell phone company.  We tracked down where her last ping on the cell phone came from, and it came from the Laurel Canyon area. 

That last ping? She’d called information around the hills above Laurel Canyon. It was just after 5 p.m., the sun would have been just below the horizon.

Police found a man who lived in Laurel Canyon who remembered a girl in a Mazda Miata, lost, looking for a house up the hill. Kristi Johnson drove a Miata.

But by now, detectives had a name, a suspect: Victor Paleologus. He fit the description provided by both Susan Murphy and Cathy Debuono.

And that’s when Detective Obenchain caught a break.

Det. Obenchain: Mr. Paleologus happened to be in custody because Beverly Hills arrested him on unrelated charges to our case.

Beverly Hills Police videotaped their pursuit of a stolen BMW as it raced into the  parking lot of another Los Angeles mall. At the wheel was Victor Paleologus who was arrested minutes later and charged with grand theft auto.

FREE VIDEO Did he steal a BMW? Nov. 11: Victor Paleologus was arrested for stealing a BMW. But, as he tells Dateline’s Keith Morrison, he was only checking out the credit limit on an ID he had stolen. Dateline NBC

So Detective Obenchain headed to the men’s central jail in downtown Los Angeles.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: Did he talk?

Det. Obenchain: No.  He would not say anything about Kristi. He told us things, that he was writing a book, and he would mention other things, but every time the interrogators would point him to “Where is Kristi?” he would answer, “I can’t help you.”

Susan Murphy was brought in to identify Victor first in pictures, what the cops call a six-pack.

Susan Murphy: Yes, I had to do a photo line-up and then later came the actual line-up.  Which was a little bit like seeing a horror film.

I knew who it was immediately. And he was like disguising him—like acting all weird and like trying to think, “What is he doing”?  And I was like, "That’s the guy for sure."

Victor Paleologus, 40 years old, was divorced. He’d once owned an Italian restaurant. He looked normal.

And if his pick-up line was to pretend to be in showbiz, so what?  Didn’t make him a predator, did it?  Paleologus and his attorney Andy Flier sat down with us in the men’s central jail in Los Angeles.

Andy Flier, attorney for Victor Paleologus: I assume he’s not the first male to try to meet a young lady and maybe get lucky, irrespective of what tale they tell.

Morrison: Right.

Flier: And that’s the problem we have. 

And Victor Paleologus talked about his life, his mistakes, and how he had nothing to do with the disappearance of Kristi Johnson.  And denied he caused trouble for any other woman, either.

Morrison: Susan Murphy, for example, says she met you in a mall and you came on to her and suggested you were a movie producer—and then, sure enough, the video in the mall shows you approaching Susan Murphy. Kinda corroborates her story, doesn’t it?

Victor Paleologus: Well, it corroborates the fact that we met.  It didn’t corroborate the fact that I told her to do anything.  No.  We met in the mall that night.  I was going to a movie.  She was going to the restaurant to have dinner.  We sat down.  We  had some discussions.  I told her about, you know, who I was, where I was—from, etcetera, etcetera.

Morrison: And yet women look at your picture and say, “Yeah, he’s the guy.  He said he was a producer.  They’re making a James Bond film.”

Paleologus: That’s a lie.

Morrison: They all lied?

Paleologus: Yes.

And what about Kristi and the man she met at a mall?

Morrison: Where were you at the time?

Paleologus: I was nowhere near there. I was in the Century Plaza Hotel.

Morrison:  That’s where she met you.

Paleologus: --in a spa.  No.

Morrison: She met you in the mall.

Paleologus: She did not meet me in the mall.  I was in the Century Plaza Hotel.

The Century Plaza Hotel is across the street from that mall. But even so, did Victor Paleologus have anything to do with Kristi Johnson’s disappearance? Detective Obenchain thought he did.

Morrison: You knew he knew something, and he’s not telling you.  And you suspect something terrible’s happened to this girl obviously.  That must be awfully frustrating.

Det. Obenchain: It was extremely frustrating, especially since some time had elapsed.  We weren’t sure if she was alive.  We were hoping that she was alive.  We knew that it was critical that we find her as soon as possible.

Morrison: And if she was dead, the longer the time was that went by, the less material there would be to give you clues?

Det. Obenchain: Correct.

So volunteers scoured those empty parts of Los Angeles, where missing people often wind up.  Would they find her there?  Her parents hung missing posters and clung to a thin thread of hope.

Terry Hall, Kristi Johnson’s mom: The chief of police and the captain of the Santa Monica police department did come to visit me, and they said that they really felt that Kristi was probably not alive. And my first question was, “Has this person who you’ve arrested… has this person been arrested for murder before?” They said no.  As a parent, I’m very hopeful that maybe this person has abducted my daughter but he hasn’t murdered her.

They say it never rains in Southern California. But in the winter of 2003, it poured.

Torrents came roaring down the gloomy hills around Hollywood. And mud. 

And then one day, when the sun finally peaked through the clouds, there in the mud, on the side of a hill,  some hikers who thought they’d be enjoying the view found what was left of a female body.

Morrison: It was a rainy year wasn’t it?

Det. Obenchain: It was very rainy.  Very rainy.

Morrison: And, so when you were called up to where the body was, what was found?

Det. Obenchain: Kristine’s body was found. Her hands tied behind her back. Her legs tied.  She was partially in a sleeping bag, and she was severely decomposed from the shoulders up.

Morrison: Simply by being out of doors in a very rainy, wet season.

Det. Obenchain: Correct.

Morrison: Dumped.

Det. Obenchain: Dumped.

More than two weeks in the rain.  Enough to wash away most of the evidence they might otherwise have found.

Morrison: People have expectations.  I mean, I asked you about finding that body on the hill and fully, frankly expected you to be able to say, “You know, we knew exactly the minute she died, how she died, whether there’d been penetration—or strangulation—" you know, all those questions that we’ve come to expect to be answered.  Could you answer them?

Det. Obenchain: No we couldn’t.  This was not CSI.  This is reality. There isn’t always DNA.  There isn’t always trace evidence.  There isn’t always a fingerprint left.

Morrison: And there wasn’t a lot of stuff in this case?

Det. Obenchain: There was nothing.

And that’s how it ended, the search for Kristi Johnson, the girl who trusted, it turned out, too much.

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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: