LOS ANGELES -- Detectives have reopened an unsolved 1976 murder for a possible link to a nursery school being investigated for widespread child molestation, a prosecutor disclosed.
District Attorney Robert Philibosian said Friday the brutal murder of Karen Klaas, ex-wife of Righteous Brothers singer Bill Medley, was being reviewed because her son, who was 5 years old at the time, attended the preschool.
Miss Klaas, 32, was raped and strangled in her Hermosa Beach home on Jan. 30, 1976. She died five days later.
At the time of the slaying, her son attended the McMartin Pre-School in neighboring Manhattan Beach, where the owner and six teachers have been charged with 115 counts of child molesations. Prosecutors said more than 100 children may have been abused over the last 10 years at the school.
Sheriff's homicide investigators and Hermosa Beach detectives told UPI late Thursday, however, there was no link between the 8-year-old murder and the school.
'We're looking at it to see if there is any further connection, but that was covered in the original investigation and covered well,' Sheriff's Capt. Robert Grimm said.
'There doesn't seem to be any connection other than her child went to that school.'
Philbosian also told reporters Friday that a Torrance daycare facility was being investigated for possible molestation -- the fourth Los Angeles area preschool to come under scrutiny in two weeks. A female teacher at the school was detained by police Friday and later released.
The unidentified teacher at the Hickory Tree Preschool in Torrance was questioned after police served a search warrant at the school. A second search warrant in the same case was served at a private residence in nearby Carson.
In a separate case, Philibosian said a suspect was arrested for molesting a child at the Little Angel Daycare Center in Lynwood. Earlier, the district attorney's office said that up to 20 children might have been victimized at the school.
Philibosian said there was no connection between the various preschool investigations.
