Over the weekend, Menashe Hidra’s body was found inside his fifth-floor Valley Village apartment after an assailant broke into a neighboring unit, jumped from the balcony to his and attacked. The assailant appeared to leave bloody handprints on an outside wall during their escape.
That same day, Aleksandre Modebadze was found beaten to death inside his Woodland Hills home after a woman called 911 to report an attack.
According to law enforcement sources not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigations, both slayings in the San Fernando Valley have a troubling similarity: Los Angeles police officers responded to the scenes after 911 calls and found nothing, only to return later to find the dead victims.
The cases are not connected, and suspects have been arrested in Modebadze‘s slaying.
Dried blood stains the exterior wall of the Valley Village apartment were Menasha Hidra was killed.
(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times)
LAPD officials say they have started an investigation that will include the officers’ response to calls for help.
“We can confirm that both cases are being thoroughly reviewed and investigated, including officer responses and timelines,” a department spokesperson told The Times.
Citing the investigations, the department declined to answer detailed questions.
Hidra’s body was found inside his top-floor apartment at the Ashton Sherman Village complex about 2:30 p.m. Saturday by Van Nuys division officers doing a welfare check after a friend became concerned.
Inside the apartment, officers found him unresponsive, and Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. He had a puncture wound to the head, and there was blood next to him on the floor, according to sources familiar with the police report.
Three days before Hidra’s body was found, neighbors called authorities and reported hearing screaming coming from his apartment. The neighbors reportedly heard a fight and then a man’s voice saying, “I am going to die. I am going to die,” according to law enforcement sources.
In a recording of a police dispatch call before 4 a.m. on April 23, a dispatcher is heard reporting the call to 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.”
Multiple law enforcement sources say police officers responded to the scene but never entered the apartment.
Two residents told The Times that they called police between 3 and 4 a.m. about the screaming and fighting. Shortly before the struggle, the man now identified as a suspect in the killing was captured on several residents’ Ring cameras trying to get into other apartments in the building. The Times reviewed the camera footage from the floors below where the killing occurred. In the video, a tool with a long piece of metal is sticking out of the suspect’s back pocket.
On Wednesday evening, LAPD officials released a video of the suspect in the apartment stairwell.
“It’s crazy that there were 911 calls on Wednesday and they didn’t discover him until Saturday,” said Kaci Harabedian, one of the complex’s residents. “There was blood all over the wall and the door handle on the stairwell. How could they miss it?”
But the 911 call about the fight may not have been the only sign something was amiss on the fifth floor. Last Friday, police investigated a burglary at the vacant apartment next door. Inside, officers found a shattered skylight and dried blood, according to two sources not authorized to discuss the investigation.
Investigators suspect the killer may have broken into the vacant apartment neighboring Hidra’s through a skylight then moved from the unit’s balcony to his.
Bloody handprints and marks were visible on the wall between Hidra’s balcony and the vacant apartment in the aftermath when a reporter visited with residents Thursday.
A trail of blood was also visible on the building’s exterior and on the door handle of a stairwell exit, where the assailant is seen fleeing the building in a video released by police.
The suspect is described as a man with black hair who is between 30 and 40 years old, between 5-foot-6 inches and 5-foot-9 inches tall, weighs between 180 and 200 pounds, and was wearing a dark hooded jacket, a white shirt and blue jeans on the day of the killing. The suspect remains at large.
The same day that police discovered Hidra’s body, another homicide investigation was also starting to get underway.
In Woodland Hills, Modebadze, 47, suffered a fatal head injury after three assailants broke in during the early hours of Saturday morning, Los Angeles police said.
Menasha Hidra was killed inside his Valley Village apartment. Photo is blood left by the suspect on a stairwell doorway.
(Richard Winton / Los Angeles Times)
A woman inside the home called LAPD about 12:30 a.m. and reported three people had broken into her home and were beating her significant other before the call suddenly cut out, according to law enforcement sources. The 911 operator tried to call back multiple times without success. Shortly before 1 a.m., officers arrived at the home but no one answered the door, there was no noise coming from inside the home and the blinds were down, the sources told The Times.
Modebadze was later found by officers badly beaten with a traumatic head injury and eventually died from his injuries.
Authorities found Modebadze’s suspected killers hours after the incident. Investigators have no evidence to suggest a connection between his and Hidra’s killings.
Ed Obayashi, a Modoc County sheriff’s deputy and special prosecutor who trains law enforcement on search and seizure policies, said the initial police responses to both cases merited further examination.
“Even a lay person has the common sense to see exigent circumstances exist to enter these homes,” he said. “You cannot disregard a report of an assault with a deadly weapon or a beating. It is common for you to arrive and find the location quiet. But it doesn’t mean someone hasn’t been killed or injured.”
Paata Kochyashvili, 38, Zaza Otarashvili, 46, and Besiki Khutsishvili, 52, are facing charges of murder, along with a special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery, in connection with Modebadze’s death. They are being held in custody without bail pending an arraignment.
In that case, detectives traced cellphones and used camera footage to tie the suspects to the beating. The trio entered the home, in the 22200 block of De La Osa Street, repeatedly beat their victim and then stole items from him before fleeing, according to the LAPD.
Authorities recovered about $60,000 in cash and five firearms when the men were arrested, according to law enforcement sources.
LAPD officials say it was not a typical home invasion robbery and that the suspects allegedly had a prior business association. They could not could not be reached for comment.
