Justice delayed (and delayed and delayed)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 11/2/4 | Debra J. Saunders

[SmithL]

TWENTY YEARS AGO today, San Francisco auto broker Paul Cosner disappeared. Cosner's sister Sharon Sellitto told the police her brother was missing, but they wouldn't come to his apartment. Police, however, did show up when she reported his 1980 Honda Prelude stolen.

It was that car that ended one of California's most heinous killing sprees seven months later. Killers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng had been driving the car when they were caught shoplifting in South San Francisco. Ng escaped, but police nabbed Lake, who swallowed a cyanide pill and died.

Police then traced the bullet-riddled car to the missing Cosner. The investigation led to the Calaveras County home of Lake and Ng. Grisly remains and horrific videotapes soon revealed that Lake and Ng had sexually tortured women, and killed as many as 20 people, including babies.

Sellitto's nightmare had changed. For months she lived with dread about her brother's fate. She had paid his rent, his utilities and phone in the hope that he would return.

Now, while Cosner's body was not identified, Sellitto realized her brother was dead. But she didn't know if his fugitive killer would encounter true justice.

Twenty years later, the answer to that question still isn't clear.