They were killed on the same day, in the same way. One of the deaths captured the attention of a city and spurred the Los Angeles Police Department into overdrive. The other slipped by unnoticed, leaving a lone detective with little more to go on than hope.
Adrianna Bachan died first. Shortly after 3 a.m. March 29, Bachan, 18, and a friend stood at the intersection of Jefferson Boulevard and Hoover Street on the edge of the USC campus. Returning home after a night out, the two students stepped into the crosswalk and started across Jefferson.
An eastbound car blew through a red light, tossing Bachan into the air and hurling her friend onto the windshield, before it disappeared into the darkness, witnesses and police said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, May 08, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 2 inches; 77 words Type of Material: Correction
Hit-and-run reward: An article in Monday's Section A examining two hit-and-run fatalities said staffers for Los Angeles Councilman Bernard Parks had arranged for a reward in one of the cases without first receiving a request from the Los Angeles Police Department. The article cited an LAPD officer on that point, but department officials now say the officer was unaware that a commanding officer had contacted Parks' office to inquire about a reward before the offer was made.
Bachan's friend suffered broken legs and other injuries. Bachan was alive when she reached California Hospital Medical Center, but died before sunrise of massive head injuries.
Minutes before 11 that night -- just as television stations were about to start news broadcasts filled with reports about Bachan's death -- Agapito Gaspar Nicolas stepped into a crosswalk on Figueroa Street, a block from his cramped Highland Park apartment. The 55-year-old Guatemala native had been scratching out a living on construction crews since coming to California about 15 years ago.
Nicolas' girlfriend would guess later that he had been on his way to a taco stand to pick up carne asada burritos for her and her children -- something he did often. Just before he reached the far curb, a car broadsided him and dragged or threw him 70 feet. Paramedics found Nicolas lying in the street with a fractured skull. He died soon afterward.
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About an hour after Bachan was hit, Jimmy Render, a detective supervisor in the LAPD's South Bureau Traffic Division, arrived at the scene to take over for uniformed officers. He was not encouraged by what he found. Witnesses could offer only a vague description of the car -- a dark-colored sedan, maybe a Toyota Corolla, maybe a Honda Accord. No one had glimpsed the license plate or managed to get a look at the driver. And no piece of the car -- a hood ornament or bumper that could have been used to identify the make and model -- had been recovered.
Render knew his best move was an appeal to the public. Perhaps the driver had confessed to someone or a neighbor had seen the damaged car. By midmorning, police had put out a news release about the accident and TV stations and newspapers jumped at a story involving the death of a USC student.
