Menashe Hidra’s body was found over the weekend in his fifth-floor Valley Village apartment. He had been attacked by someone who broke into a nearby unit, jumped from the balcony to his, and then attacked him. The attacker seemed to have left bloody handprints on a wall outside while they were running away.
Aleksandre Modebadze was found dead in his Woodland Hills home that same day. A woman had called 911 to report an attack.
According to law enforcement sources who aren’t allowed to talk about the ongoing investigations, both killings in the San Fernando Valley have a disturbing thing in common: when Los Angeles police arrived at the scenes after 911 calls, they found nothing, but later they came back and found the bodies.
There is no link between the cases, and suspects have been caught in the killing of Modebadze.
The LAPD says they have begun a review that will look into how the officers responded to calls for help.
A department spokesperson told The Times, “We can confirm that both cases are being carefully looked over and investigated, including how officers responded and when they did so.”
The department wouldn’t answer specific questions because they were looking into them.
Near 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Van Nuys division officers were checking on Hidra’s well-being after a friend became worried. They found his body in his apartment on the top floor of the Ashton Sherman Village complex.
Inside the apartment, police found him not moving, and paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire Department declared him dead at the scene. He had a hole in his head, and there was blood on the floor next to him, according to people who know about the police report.
Neighbors called the police three days before Hidra’s body was found to say they heard screaming coming from his flat. The neighbors said they heard a fight and then the sound of a man saying, “I’m going to die.” People in law enforcement say, “I’m going to die.”
A police dispatch call made before 4 a.m. on April 23 is recorded with the following message for officers in the field: “Van Nuys units, possible ADW [assault with a deadly weapon] in progress… caller hears two males fighting and wrestling, banging and yelling.”
Several law enforcement sources say that cops arrived at the scene but never went inside the apartment.
Two people who lived there told The Times that they called the police between 3 and 4 a.m. because of the fights and screaming. Several people’s Ring cameras caught the man who is now being thought to be responsible for the murder trying to get into other flats in the building not long before the fight. The Times looked at the video from the cameras on the floors below where the murder happened. A tool with a long metal piece can be seen sticking out of the suspect’s back pocket in the video.
The LAPD shared a video of the suspect in the apartment stairwell on Wednesday night.
“It’s crazy that they called 911 on Wednesday but didn’t find him until Saturday,” said Kaci Harabedian, who lives in the complex. “There was blood on the basement door handle and the wall.” How did they not see it?”
But the call to 911 about the fight might not have been the only sign that something was wrong on the fifth floor. Last Friday, cops looked into a break-in at the next-door empty apartment. Two people who were not allowed to talk about the investigation said that inside, police found a broken skylight and dried blood.
Investigators think the killer may have used a skylight to get into the empty apartment next door to Hidra’s and then moved from the patio of that unit to his.
After the crime, bloody handprints and lines could be seen on the wall between Hidra’s balcony and the empty apartment when a reporter went to talk to the residents on Thursday.
There was also a trail of blood on the outside of the building and on the door handle of an exit from the stairs, which is where the attacker can be seen running away from the building in a video released by police.
The suspect is a guy with black hair who is 30 to 40 years old, 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall, and weighs 180 to 200 pounds. On the day of the killing, he was wearing blue jeans, a white shirt, and a dark jacket with a hood. The suspect is still on the run.