Husband in 2001 murder arrested

More than eleven years after the brutal stabbing murder of a 50-year-old woman behind a restaurant on the 50 block of Las Tunas Drive, homicide detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have arrested the slain woman’s husband, now 72. A murder warrant and charges have been filed against Richard Keith Cole by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for the murder of his former wife, Charlotte S. Cole, with a bail of $1 million issued.

Charlotte Cole, a resident of Arcadia, was 50 years old when she was stabbed multiple times and brutally murdered on September 1, 2001. Detectives from the Sherriff’s Department were called in and took the lead in the investigation with Arcadia Police detectives. Although there were no initial arrests, Charlotte’s then-husband, Richard Keith Cole, was a person of interest in the case. The case remained open, but went cold for about a decade. Cold Case Detectives from the Sheriff’s Department worked in conjunction with Arcadia Police Detectives and revisited the case in 2011, serving a search warrant at Richard Keith Cole’s new residence in Arcadia. Evidence was gathered and Cole was initially arrested for the murder on April 28, 2011, but was soon released pending further investigation. Over the course of the past year, additional evidence was gathered, leading to the charges.

At about 12 noon on Sunday, Nov. 4, suspect Richard Keith Cole, now 72 years old, was found at a restaurant in the City of Pasadena and was taken into custody by Sheriff’s Detectives and transported to a local hospital for medical clearance and was then booked at the Arcadia City Jail on the warrant, with plans to transfer him to the Los Angeles County jail.

— By Scott Hettrick