> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Autopsy results for slain woman may take 2 months - URL: https://www.smdp.com/autopsy-results-for-slain-woman-may-take-2-months-2/ - Published: 2003-04-25T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T02:05:50.000Z - Author: Carolyn Sackariason - Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Autopsy results for slain woman may take 2 months* The mother of a slain Santa Monica woman is waiting patiently for authorities to charge the man suspected of killing her only daughter in February. Terry Wark, who lives in Los Gatos, Calif., said this week that although the process is taking longer than expected, she is confident that justice will be brought to her and her family. Kristi Johnson, a 21-year-old Santa Monica College student, was found dead on March 3, her body partially clothed, wrists bound and covered in a sleeping bag at the bottom of a steep hillside in the Hollywood Hills. It appeared the body had been there for about two weeks. The investigation, which began as a missing person’s case, quickly accelerated when police recovered Johnson’s car about a week after she disappeared on Feb. 15\. Authorities were able to identify a suspect within a matter of days after finding Johnson’s vehicle and receiving hundreds of tips. Wark was caught in a media frenzy after she pleaded publicly for Johnson’s safe return through dozens of media outlets across the country. When Johnson’s body turned up, Wark was inundated with media inquiries, which made it difficult for her to focus on the murder investigation and grieve privately, she said. Now, Wark said she is relieved that the pace of the investigation has slowed down. “I’m dealing with things as they are presented,” she said. “I appreciate the process and I’m confident in the process. I’m trying to catch my breath right now and reflect on what is actually happening... I’m just starting to grieve.” Police have identified a suspect, who is in custody in the Los Angeles County Jail on an unrelated felony charge. He was arrested Feb. 17 — two days after Johnson disappeared — in Beverly Hills for grand theft auto and parole violation. He reportedly bought a car by using fake identification at a car dealership. Santa Monica Police are awaiting the results of forensic and DNA evidence that the Los Angeles County Crime Lab has been analyzing for more than two months. Authorities believe the evidence recovered from several locations searched by police shortly after Johnson disappeared will make the case against her suspected killer. SMPD detectives and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office aren’t rushing the case so they can gather enough evidence to ensure a conviction. Because the suspect already is in custody on $1.5 million bail, there is no risk of the suspect fleeing, police said. If the suspect wasn’t in custody, authorities said they feel confident they could charge and successfully prosecute him because they have enough circumstantial evidence in the case. “If this guy wasn’t in custody, we would have charged him and prosecuted him with the DA’s office,” SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega. “We are confident that we could prosecute him today.” Wark, who said she is relying on her faith, family and friends to get through the ordeal, said she is confident in the SMPD’s investigation. “I’m convinced justice will be brought,” she said, calling the suspected killer an experienced predator. “That guy isn’t going anywhere.” Police won’t release the name of the suspect because he hasn’t been charged with a crime. The Daily Press’ policy is to not name suspects until they have been charged. It’s known that the suspect has a long criminal history of luring and victimizing young, attractive women by claming to be a photographer in the entertainment industry. He was reportedly released from state prison on Jan. 20, just days before he tried to lure a woman into his clutches in West Hollywood by posing as a publicity photographer for a specific film title that he’s used as his ruse multiple times. The woman in the West Hollywood incident, suspicious of his behavior and aggressiveness, was able to escape. Johnson didn’t return to her 29th Street apartment in Santa Monica after she told her roommates she was going to Beverly Hills to audition for a photographer she met while shopping at the Century City Mall earlier. Police then learned more than a week later that Johnson’s white 1996 Mazda Miata had been valet parked Feb. 16 — the day after she disappeared — at the St. Regis Hotel in Century City. The suspect was identified as the person who dropped off the vehicle, based on a composite sketch released by police. At about the same time, police served 10 search warrants at various locations throughout Los Angeles. Authorities have only confirmed searches of the suspect’s West Hollywood residence and a home on Skyline Drive — two properties away from where Johnson’s body was found dumped in a ravine in Laurel Canyon. Police reportedly searched several vacant homes in the Hollywood Hills that the suspect may have toured with a realtor shortly before Johnson disappeared, said a source familiar with the properties. The crime lab is analyzing evidence recovered from those properties, as well as evidence recovered from Johnson’s car. The two-story Spanish style home on Skyline Drive, most recently occupied by actor Laurence Fishburne, could be of interest since it is so close to where Johnson’s body was found. The neighborhood is remote and the location of where her body was dumped can’t be accessed without entering private property. An access road at the top of the canyon is blocked with a 10-foot-tall fence and private homes are at the bottom of the ravine. Her body was found in the brush abutting people’s backyards. How Johnson died has yet to be determined by the Los Angeles County Coroner, which has deferred Johnson’s autopsy for toxicology testing. Results are expected in eight to 12 weeks. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 25, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042503.pdf?ref=smdp.com)