LA Forensics: Mysterious Confession

The First Murder

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Sherri Lewandowski as Lois Petrie

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 26, 1972 —

Petrie Crime Scene

Harbor Division detectives found Lois Petrie's body draped sideways across the bed in her tiny bungalow apartment. A blanket partially covered her. Beneath the blanket, the 43-year-old was naked except for one leg of her Capri pants and a pair of panties, both hooked around her left calf. Her legs dangled from the edge of the mattress far enough that her feet touched the floor. She was cold to the touch, a sure sign she had been dead for at least several hours.

Detective Richard Bengtson

"It didn't appear that anybody had broken into the house," says Detective Richard Bengtson of the LAPD Cold Case Homicide Unit. "There was no forced entry. There was a small hint of blood on one of the pillows, but other than that, there was no blunt force trauma to the victim. She wasn't cut up, she wasn't bleeding anywhere."

It was obvious that sex had been involved, but it was unclear to the detectives if it had been consensual or not.

"She was nude," Detective Bengtson says. "Some of the clothes were turned inside out. Some of the clothes were still inside other ones, like a shirt inside of a jacket. So, at that point, the investigators aren't going to know immediately whether this was a rape or a consensual sexual act. Maybe this started off as a consensual sex act, but maybe it finished in a different way that resulted in the death of the victim."

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1. The First Murder
2. A Gruesome Discovery
3. The Scene
   of the Crime
4. A Family Feud
5. The Boyfriend
6. No Viable Suspects
7. More Murders
8. A Strange Tip
9. Questioning
   a Suspect
10. Andrew
    Theodore Lancaster
11. Another Body
12. A Little
    Notoriety
13. Help Around
    the House
14. Strange Suggestions
15. A Shocking Confession
16. He Strangled Them
17. Cold Cases Reopened
18. An Old Witness
19. New Hope
20. Surprising Results
21. WANTED:
    A Killer's DNA
22. Planning the Operation
23. A Clever Ploy
24. SID Results
25. Endgame