> ## 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. # Landlord accused of murder used AAA tow the night a victim died - URL: https://www.smdp.com/car-trouble/ - Published: 2007-03-15T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T00:14:53.000Z - Author: Melody Hanatani - Tags: Environment, Ocean Park, #archive-import *Golay used AAA card on night of murder; landlord’s neighbor recalls spotting Sable* DOWNTOWN LA The Santa Monica landlord accused of murdering two men called for a tow truck to pick her up on the same night one of the victims was killed, just blocks from where his body was found. A team manager at AAA confirmed this week during the preliminary hearing for Helen Golay and her alleged accomplice that the 76-year-old’s membership card was used on the night of June 21, 2005 to tow her car from a gas station at the corner of Santa Monica and Westwood boulevards in Los Angeles to the corner of Fifth Street and Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica. That same day, 50-year-old Kenneth McDavid was killed in a hit-and-run incident in an alley in the 1200 block of Westwood Boulevard. At the time of her arrest last May, Golay lived in the apartment building she owned on Ocean Park Boulevard, between Fourth and Fifth streets. Along with 74-year-old Olga Rutterschmidt, of Hollywood, Golay is accused of murdering McDavid and 73-year-old Paul Vados in separate, yet very similar, back alley hit-and-runs. In 1999, Vados was found dead in an alley in Hollywood. During witness testimony, Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels presented Eli Burgos of AAA with a sheet titled “Member Use History,” which detailed card use by Golay in 2005 and 2006. With the evidence laying before him, Burgos read aloud one call made at 11:54 p.m. on June 21, 2005 — a call that suggests a link between Golay and the murder of McDavid. The automobile club dispatched a truck from contractor Brent Air Towing to the Chevron at the corner of Santa Monica and Westwood boulevards, where a battered 1999 silver Mercury Sable waited. In his cross-examination of Burgos, Golay’s defense attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, asked how long AAA kept its recordings of calls, to which he replied that they are kept on file for about 90 days unless subpoenaed, which they were not. Insinuating that someone else might have used Golay’s card, the attorney then asked whether AAA employees are required to check identification and collect signatures of AAA members. Burgos said they were, but unfortunately, some forget. With all eyes on him and Diamond staring from the side, Burgos acknowledged that he isn’t sure who placed the call to AAA. The driver of the tow truck that night, Luis Jaimes of Brent Air Towing, remembers the assignment, but could not recall the name on the membership card nor the face of the card holder when asked on Tuesday if he saw that person in the courtroom. “I tow many people and I honestly don’t remember a face,” Jaimes said. What he does remember is that an “elderly” woman sat in the cab next to him as he towed the car to Santa Monica. Diamond asked how he defined an elderly person. Someone who is 45 years of age and older, Jaimes replied, drawing snickers from the courtroom. The deputy district attorney immediately stood up, asking if someone over the age of 70 would also be considered “elderly,” to which Jaimes answered “yes.” Attempting to distance Rutterschmidt from her co-defendant in the case, her defense attorney, Public Defender Michael Sklar, asked Jaimes to confirm that there was only one woman in the tow truck and that the car was not towed to a Hollywood address. Parking is always a problem in Ocean Park and nobody knows that more than Meilisa Thompson, who lives in a house just a few yards away from Golay’s apartment on Ocean Park Boulevard. Called to testify on Tuesday, Thompson recalled seeing a car parked in the alley separating her home from Golay’s apartment for months, possibly up to half a year. She noticed the car was stationary because finding a parking spot is such a huge hassle in the neighborhood. The two women would often run into each other in the back alley, but the relationship turned sour over a situation involving the placement of Golay’s trash cans, which Thompson said drew “very unsavory people” to the alley. About a year after Thompson first contacted the city of Santa Monica about the garbage can situation, she noticed that some red paint had splattered all over a building and the car that had been parked in the same spot for months. The red paint can was found in the trash can. Upon discovering the spill, Thompson snapped some photos of the trash can to show the city and inadvertently also took pictures of the car. She decided to save them for later in case the car owner needed them for insurance purposes. Then one day as Thompson went outside, she reportedly saw Golay standing very close and “interacting” with the car. The older woman was not observing the car or the paint, but she was standing close enough to suggest that she was the owner. “We were not super friendly so I felt (no need) to give her the pictures,” Thompson said, acknowledging she felt the paint incident was karma. Then one day, the car was gone. Right before the arrest, the two neighbors ran into each other in the alley, where Golay chatted about her grandchildren and Thompson talked about her child. With tears welling in her eyes, Thompson recalls how she felt after the conversation. “I felt like that was the warmest conversation I had with Helen,” she said, her voice cracking. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 15, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/031507.pdf?ref=smdp.com)