SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — An elderly woman was brutally killed in her Mission Valley home back in the early '90s, and for years, investigators and loved ones have searched for answers: Who did it, and why?
ABC 10News anchor Lindsey Peña explained how this cold case could still be solved all these years later.
Nov. 1, 1992, is a day Shelly Laliberte remembers vividly.
"I was devastated, absolutely devastated. We all were... We were just a puddle of tears," Laliberte said.
That was the day she and the rest of her family learned that their mother, 70-year-old Ida Louise Loe, had been killed in a horrific way.
"I couldn't believe it. I can't think of one person who disliked her," Laliberte said.
Ida's body was discovered inside her Mission Valley condo, where she lived alone.
"The reason why police were called in the first place was because Ida's daughters could not get a hold of her. They tried numerous times over a several day period ,and the phone appeared to be off the hook," said Lori Adams, a detective with the San Diego Police Department's Cold Case Unit. "So, the daughters came to check her welfare and the door was locked."
Adams said once inside, the responding officers were met with a grisly crime scene.
"Ida was found in her bedroom and she was still wearing her nightgown," she said. "She was both shot and stabbed, which appears to be overkill."
Adams walked ABC 10News through the condo complex, pointing out Ida's second floor unit.
She said there were no signs of forced entry, leading investigators to believe Ida let her killer into her home.
"Ida knew who was in her home and who committed this murder and likely that person planned this murder, bringing with them both a gun and a knife," Adams said. "When we say that Ida potentially knew her attacker, that doesn't necessarily mean that she knew them for a prolonged period of time. It could have been some kind of incidental contact with that person, and she developed a very short relationship with them or contact with them that ultimately led to this person coming to attack her in her home."
Laliberte said her older sister was on the phone with their mother just days before her body was found.
"She was at home on a Thursday — Oct. 29, 1992 — and she was on the phone with my mother. It was around four in the afternoon. They were chatting, and my mother said there's someone banging, she said pounding on the door," Laliberte said. "They continued to talk, and then [our mother] stopped and said 'They're still pounding on the door... I guess I have to answer it.' So they ended the call, and she was never heard from again."
The family has no idea why someone would do what they did to Ida, and at this point, neither do investigators.
Nothing appeared to be taken from the home, and she wasn't sexually assaulted. There was physical evidence collected at the scene, and Adams said tests have been done over the years, but so far nothing has pointed to a solid suspect.
"We're hoping that someone associated to this building, whether a former resident, a former apartment manager or anyone that knew Ida Lowe back in 1992, could give us a lead on a potential suspect that we can explore," the Cold Case Unit detective said.
At this point, hope is something Laliberte and the rest of Ida's loved ones are sharing.
"I do have hope... I never give up hope. I never give up," Laliberte said. "The hope is that they arrest someone that goes to prison for taking my mother... My kids' grandmother. I don't want closure — I want justice. I want the person to pay for taking my mother from me, and I'm hoping they do it in my lifetime, and I think they will."
