The Podcast

Prologue

West Coast Killers #142: Ruined Bruins (Intro)

Gather 'round my WCK sleuths, with me, your host, Sumner West. The story I have for you today is about the untimely and mysterious deaths of two UCLA juniors. The continued search for their killer is perhaps one of the most wildly unexpected and frustrating pursuits for LAPD investigators. Today's episode is the story of Hanna Bellevue and Connor Foster.

It's about 8:00 PM on Thursday February 6th 1997. UCLA sophomore, Marjorie Brennam, is leaving the Pi Beta Phi house located on Hilgard Avenue, known as UCLA's sorority row. As she walks out to her parked car outside the sorority house, she notices something strange. Inside the car parked next to hers, a blonde head is slumped forward over the steering wheel. The car isn't on and it's hard for Marjorie to make out who is inside. Assuming one of her sorority sisters is drunk or high, she knocks on the driver-side window, expecting the girl inside to raise her head, or rustle awake, or something. But when the girl inside the car doesn't move, Marjorie starts to panic. I mean, so would I; who wouldn't?

Marjorie rushes back inside the sorority house and tells a few of the girls in the common living area that someone is passed out inside their car. Within minutes, a crowd gathers, knocking on the glass of the vehicle and trying unsuccessfully to open the car door. According to reporting by Meriah Covert for the Los Angeles Times, several of the girls initially assume it's some sort of prank. Perhaps by another sorority or one of the fraternities. That is, until a junior named Aubrey Fullbright, also a Pi Beta Phi sorority sister, joins the commotion outside. When she takes in the scene, she immediately freaks out. See, Aubrey knows the car and the girl inside. It's her best friend and roommate, Hanna Bellevue.

They immediately call 911, who arrive on the scene and break the glass of the vehicle. Officers confirm what Aubrey already knew: the girl slumped over the steering wheel is Hanna Bellevue. But that's not all they confirm. By about 8:40 PM it's clear to officers, and to the horrified sorority sisters gathered outside the house, that Hanna is dead. And not only is she dead, but she's likely been dead for hours. What's even more perplexing is the lack of any blood or strangulation marks. No apparent wounds or foaming at the mouth, nothing. Additionally, investigators believe that Hanna couldn't have been parked dead inside her car like this for very long since the sorority house had frequent comings and goings. If she had been parked here for some time, slumped over the steering wheel, someone would have seen her before Marjorie did. So this leads investigators to two critical and inextricably linked questions: how did Hanna Bellevue die, and who put her dead body back inside her car?