LAPD: October 2008 Archives

America's Most Wanted will devote part of its show Saturday to the tale of the Grim Sleeper. The LA Weekly outlined the story several weeks ago. Here's a link to the show's Web site. This from the AMW press release:

AMW host John Walsh and special guest LAPD Chief William Bratton will share the latest developments in the case of "The Grim Sleeper," a serial killer who earned his nickname after committing at least 11 violent murders in the 1980s, only to resurface and strike again 13 years later.
 
Walsh will also take viewers to the mean streets populated by the city's homeless, and ask them to help solve the brutal and senseless murder of John McGraham. McGraham was a fixture on the streets of L.A.'s Koreatown neighborhood, a man who'd been given a raw deal by life but was making the best of it. The community considered him to be one of their own, and protected him as best they could. In October 2008, someone doused the helpless man with gasoline and set him ablaze, leaving him to die in the streets.

This from staff and wire reports:

LOS ANGELES  -- An Altadena man made his first court appearance today on
charges that he molested two 9-year-old girls, including one of his students,
while he was working as a teacher about 20 years ago.

Mark Walter Sonnenburg, 53, is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 20 on three
felony counts filed last Friday involving the two alleged victims, according to
Sandi Gibbons of the District Attorney's Office.

One of the girls was a student at Eagle Rock Montessori School,
where he taught at the time, Gibbons said.

He had more recently taught at The Walden School in Pasadena where he worked until March, according to a statement released by that
school.

"We have determined that these allegations do not involve any former or current
student from our school and are based on a time more than two decades ago,"
Walden School's statement says. "Prior to learning of the allegations, the
school never received any information, complaint or allegation of this kind
involving Mr. Sonnenburg -- before or during his tenure at the school."

The Walden School said it had been contacted by authorities during the last
school year, had been fully cooperating with the investigation and conducted
its own independent investigation.

Sonnenburg was arrested last Friday by officers from the Los Angeles Police
Department's Northeast Division. He has remained jailed since then in lieu of
$300,000 bail.