Posted on 08/09/2009 8:23:45 PM PDT by Steelfish
Family, friends gather to remember Lily Burk
The ceremony was intended as 'something to honor such a creative soul.' The 17-year-old Oakwood student was killed last month.
By Corina Knoll and Margot Roosevelt August 9, 2009
On a hill overlooking a misty downtown skyline, hundreds gathered in the afternoon sun today to celebrate the life of Lily Burk, cut short by a brutal murder last month.
Students from Oakwood School, where the 17-year-old Burk was a fun-loving and academically successful senior, spread blankets beside a white canopy shading hundreds of folding chairs in Bardsdall Art Park.
Programs were handed out with a photo of Lily, the only child of Los Feliz attorney Deborah Drooz and music journalist Greg Burk. They planned the ceremony as "something to honor such a creative soul -- a budding actress and phenomenal writer," said Rick Wartzman, a friend of the family.
On the back of the program was a quote from a journal that Lily kept on a trip to Chiapas, Mexico. It said, in part:
Here we know
When we die; we lived
When we die, we go back
When we die, we become something greater...
Some mourners wore black, while others were in colorful dresses and shorts. Tables were set up with books where people wrote messages such as "Lily's life will be eternal." And "I will never forget wonderful Lily."
Burk's slaying has touched off widespread concern in the city and an outpouring of grief from those who knew her.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The young woman had left her Los Feliz home the afternoon of July 24 to pick up some papers at Southwestern Law School in the mid-Wilshire area for her mother, who teaches at the school. Shortly afterward, she made separate calls to her mother and father asking for the PIN number of a credit card in order to get money from an ATM machine.
When she did not return that evening, her parents called the police. Burk's body was found the next morning in the passenger seat of her black Volvo in a downtown parking lot.
Charles Samuel, a 50-year-old transient and parolee who was enrolled in a residential drug-treatment program, was arrested the same day. He has been charged with murder, kidnapping to commit robbery, robbery and attempted robbery from an ATM.
Police said they have collected footage from surveillance cameras showing Samuel, 50, driving away from the law school area in Burk's car with her in the passenger seat. He also appears standing with Burk at a downtown ATM machine and later abandoning the car in the parking lot where the body was found, police said.
Samuel had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and crime. In 1987, he pleaded guilty to robbery and residential burglary after abducting an elderly man from his home and driving in the man's car to an ATM where he demanded that the man withdraw money.
When none appeared, Samuel struck the man using the victim's cane and threatened to kill him if he reported the crime. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
In the years since, he has been convicted of several misdemeanors including theft, driving on a suspended license and being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Whatever happened to the “Three Strike” law in CA? I’d sue the state for letting this bastard run around loose.
You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. They’re about to “parole” 40,000 of ‘em because we’re broke and the prisons are overcrowded.
I just posted this link on another thread, but relevant here too. Barbary Coast Vigilance Committees of the 1800’s:
http://www.bcvc.net/history.htm
parsy, who read a book about this once and remembers how the criminals started clearing out in a hurry
“You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. They’re about to “parole” 40,000 of ‘em because we’re broke and the prisons are overcrowded.”
Yeah, I bet that’s why the LAPD Chief is retiring three years early. He don’t want to be around for that.
This guy will be sent to rehab by a weenie judge and turned loose in a year or so as “cured”. The only cure is a .357 slug in his head.
I think so too and I don’t blame him.
“she made separate calls to her parents asking for the PIN number of a credit card in order to get money from an ATM machine”
Is there some reason why this was not a “red flag” to them?
How was this poor girl killed? It doesn’t seem to say in the article.
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