For 25 years, the family of an SBCC student strangled in her home has wondered who was behind the brutal crime. Today, a fresh look at the case may provide the answer.

BY DAWN HOBBS

It was 1977 in Santa Barbara, but for Lori Rosen, the year was laced with the 1960s spice of the Summer of Love.

Then the good vibes ended, suddenly and violently. Her flower-child ideals were shattered March 7, the day the 19-year-old Santa Barbara City College student was found murdered in her Montecito cottage.

It was a tragic ending for the peace-loving girl who listened to the Grateful Dead and Bob Marley, sewed deerskin skirts, and created jewelry out of beads, turquoise and silver. Lori read Eastern philosophy books and wrote free-form poetry.

One poem reads like an eerie premonition of her death.

"I just don't believe this," her mother, Patricia Rosen, said one recent night in her Cold Springs Road home, as she held a yellowed piece of notebook paper in her hand and shook her head. "It's like she somehow knew what was going to happen."

Lori's poem was called "The Fairy-tale of Mad Snapdragons and Ethereal Princesses."

Under the title, she wrote: "(For Detectives Only)" — a message that doesn't appear on any of the hundreds of other poems or letters Lori wrote.

"I feel white sheets," Lori wrote, "nurses with crisp, starched uniforms, the smell of alcohol and needles nearby. My hair is stuck in a mat of dry blood. But I am home now. The lonely one, running in the wilderness, dreaming in the sun ... Help me open my eyes. Sleep. I feel sleep overtaking me."

Mrs. Rosen found her daughter Monday, March 7, 1977, lying dead on her bed, her garment was torn open, her long brown hair was stuck in a mat of dry blood.

Sheriff's detectives found a rock beneath the girl's petite body. They believe her killer used the rock to beat the beautiful young woman, causing blood to splatter across the wall near her bed.

Lori died from strangulation and blunt force trauma to her head.

Mrs. Rosen found the poem in a box of her daughter's writings that had been sealed since Lori was murdered in her cottage on Tabor Lane. The next day, Santa Barbara County Sheriff's detectives called the mother and told her they've submitted preserved DNA evidence they gathered at the scene to the state's Department of Justice crime lab. Recent technological advances allow for DNA analysis of hair strands, skin fibers, blood and other evidence that at the time of Lori's murder were considered nearly useless.

"The case has been reassigned to Sheriff's detectives to reopen and investigate," said Lt. Gary Kitzman. "With the technological advances we now have, we believe there's a high probability of solving this case."

THE VICTIM

How could a girl so wrapped up in the 1960s spirit of peace, love and respect for nature meet with such a brutal demise?

She hiked with her little brother and big sister in Santa Barbara's frontcountry. And whiled away hours at the South Coast beaches in an inner tube, reveling in the playfulness of the waves as they gently tossed her about the white-wash.

Cold Springs was her favorite trail, Butterfly her favorite beach.

Every Sunday she'd mill about the arts and crafts displays on Cabrillo Boulevard.

She mixed the earthy aroma of incense with the sweet smell of marijuana. She wore lace, denim and long-flowing skirts. Bracelets adorned her ankles, scented oils her young, smooth skin. And she embraced the slogan "Make Love — Not War."

"I had her buried in the clothes and jewelry she made because they meant a lot to her," Mrs. Rosen said through tears.

On Nov. 10, her family went to the Santa Barbara Cemetery on Channel Drive, like they have every year for the last 25 years, to put flowers on Lori's grave for her birthday. Her headstone has her favorite celestial designs etched into it — the sun, moon and stars. Lori would have been 44 years old.

THE KILLER

A killer who strangles his victim usually perceives a personal vendetta against him or her, forensic psychologists say.

The attacker needs to get close, physically touch and sustain the brutality against the victim to kill — it's an intimate act. So detectives believe that Lori's killer was likely someone she knew.

Several boyfriends, acquaintances who dealt marijuana and cocaine, and her landlord immediately became potential murder suspects. However, they were cleared through alibis and, for some, polygraph examinations.

"Even today, detectives admit there's a possibility that the killer of Lori was in fact interviewed — but was clever enough to not be detected at that time," said retired Sheriff's Sgt. Bill Turner.

Initially, detectives thought it possible that Lori's murder was the result of the frustration of a jealous lover or the financial loss of a drug deal gone bad.

More than likely, some now believe, Lori's killer was someone who was agitated by the many men attracted to her physical beauty and vibrant personality. Someone who thought he cared about Lori and who wanted to be intimate with her. It could be someone whom she rejected. Yet, he likely believed Lori was taunting him, purposefully making him jealous. He flew into a rage. And he killed her. Maybe not even intending to do so.

Although the killer may have gone undetected for the last 25 years, he may not remain free for long.

The DNA analysis of evidence from her cottage will be compared to samples in a state Cold Hits databank. However, if the killer hasn't recently been arrested on a felony, his DNA will not be there. But detectives said they plan to re-interview previous suspects and, if necessary, obtain their DNA for comparison. They also hope people with information who wouldn't step forward then will do so now.

"I would do anything — absolutely anything if they could find out who did this to Lori," said Mrs. Rosen. "It must have been a terrible person for him to even think about hurting such a beautiful young girl who would never hurt anyone or anything. When it first happened, I would have given my life to find out who did this to her."

Mrs. Rosen still wears a turquoise and silver ring Lori made for her a year before she was murdered.

"I think about her a lot. I have to. I always will. I can't help it. But it isn't always the tragedy I think about. I try to think about the things Lori used to love."

HER FINAL DAYS

Lori lived with her family in a wooden A-frame house with ceiling-to-floor windows that overlooked a large deck and a fantastic view of the Santa Barbara Mountains. In the evenings, Lori retreated to a wooden playhouse in the backyard of her Cold Springs Road home at the end of a dirt trail.

Lori left Santa Barbara High School before graduating and was in her second semester at City College when she was murdered. She was also attending classes at a Santa Barbara modeling school — where she learned to pose her trim, vibrant body, flip her long, straight dark hair just right, and penetrate the camera with her innocent, yet seductive, big brown eyes. Lori wanted to grow up to be a model and a writer.

In late January 1977, Lori decided it was time to leave home. She found a small garage behind a house on Tabor Lane that had been converted into a rental. She decorated the 10 by 15 room with plants, tapestry rugs, baskets, dried flowers and wooden boxes.

"I never wanted her to move out in the first place," Mrs. Rosen said. "But she was seeing a psychologist who thought it might be a great idea for her to be on her own. I went along with it. She rented the room, moved all of her things there and it was fun for her. She even took her sewing machine."

Lori was seeing a psychologist for depression. Her mother would later learn she was also into drugs.

"But before she was killed, Lori came to me and said she didn't like the way drugs messed her up," Mrs. Rosen said. "She wanted to quit."

Lori was close with her family, especially her mother. She returned home several times a week to savor a home-cooked meal and talk.

But after only five weeks in the rental, Lori told her mother she wanted to move back because she wasn't getting along with someone in the front house, where rooms were rented out. The first week in March she brought her sewing machine and some boxes back to Cold Springs Road house. The rest was to follow soon.

That Friday, Lori had breakfast with her mom at the family home. They made an appointment for a make-up artist to come by the Cold Springs house on Monday. After breakfast, her mother headed to Los Angeles where she spent the weekend with Lori's father before they drove back to Montecito Sunday evening.

Friday afternoon, Lori met up with a Brooks Institute student to do a photo session. That evening, Lori went to the El Encanto Hotel Bar with an acquaintance and met a boyfriend there. When the bar closed, Lori and her boyfriend went back to her place. They woke up about 8 a.m. Saturday and hooked up once that afternoon.

That evening Lori met up with another boyfriend, known as "Jose," and then slept at his house.

The two returned to her cottage Sunday morning so Lori could freshen up before they went out for brunch. She returned home about 5 p.m. About two hours later, Jose called Lori and asked if she wanted to go out, but she told him she already had dinner plans with another man.

That was the last anyone spoke with Lori.

A boyfriend called Lori about 3:30 a.m., but her line was busy.

The make-up artist showed up shortly after noon on Monday at her mother's home.

Lori didn't.

THE MURDER

Mrs. Rosen called to see why her daughter was late. When she got repeated busy signals, she figured she'd just go pick her up.

"I didn't know what to think," Mrs. Rosen said. "All I knew was that she wanted this modeling thing very much. So I didn't understand why she wasn't there."

As Mrs. Rosen drove to the rear of the property, she noticed the redwood gate, usually closed, open and unsecured. She felt something was wrong.

"Then I pushed the door open, which was ajar, and found her in bed — dead," she said.

Mrs. Rosen took only a couple of steps into the small room before she spotted blood on her daughter's lifeless body and ran out.

"It was horrible — it was devastating," Mrs. Rosen recalled. She called for help at a neighbor's house. "And then I hurried home. I couldn't handle it then — and not even for a long time after."

Her beautiful little girl, who would never hurt anything, had been murdered.

"I left there so fast," she said. "I was scared. I wanted to get out of there and get home where it was safe."

For the first week or so Mrs. Rosen couldn't sleep. But then she became consumed with finding her daughter's killer.

"I wanted to badly. All I thought about was finding that person and tearing him apart. I probably drove the detectives crazy wanting them to find out who did this to her. It was inhuman. I don't understand how anyone could do that to her. My husband was devastated, too; the whole family was devastated. But I think mothers feel it the worst, especially since we were so close.

"I talked to everybody I could. I found out exactly who she knew and called them to find out if they knew anything. That's all I did. Every day."

The Brooks Institute student who took photographs of Lori two days before she was killed called a week later. "He asked if Lori could come pick up her pictures, but she was already dead. It was sad to think that she'd never see them. I look at them and think she would have made a wonderful model."

She appeared sensual, angelic. A halo of light enveloped her.

When detectives recently called Mrs. Rosen to tell her they'd be on her daughter's case again, she was elated. Once the killer is found, both her and her daughter will finally be able to rest.

"I just hope that they'll be able to look at it in a different way and find something this time," she said. "If they don't find anything, at least I'll know they tried one more time. Maybe if someone knows something about this, they'll tell the detectives. I just want to know. I have to know. I want that person locked up. That person could be doing bad things to other people. They don't just stop."

YOU CAN HELP
If you have information about the killing of Lori Rosen may call the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department Tip Line at 681-4171. You can also send an e-mail to tipline@newspress.com.

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