Dorothy Fain, 70, was found stabbed to death in her Hollywood, Los Angeles, apartment on August 11, 1983. She lived alone and was one of several elderly women in the area targeted in a wave of fatal attacks; detectives linked her killing to a pattern of assaults on women in their late 60s to early 80s who lived alone nearby.

Investigators soon identified 27‑year‑old Brandon Tholmer as the prime suspect. Tholmer had a criminal history of assaulting and raping elderly women and an M.O. matching multiple unsolved murders involving beating, stabbing or strangulation, often with sexual assault and sometimes arson. He was arrested in November 1983 during an attempted break‑in at another elderly woman’s home; police later recovered stolen items belonging to many victims.

Tholmer was charged in January 1984 in Fain’s death and several others. In July 1986 he was convicted of Fain’s murder and three other killings; the jury found he had stabbed Fain and committed sodomy during the killing. He received consecutive life sentences without parole. Did anyone who knew Dorothy or lived in Hollywood in 1983 notice suspicious activity around the time of these attacks?