Police release sketches, hope for break in 1969 slaying

LOS ANGELES — Police are looking for two men in connection with the killing of a 19-year-old Canadian woman found stabbed to death in 1969 near the site of the most notorious Manson family killings in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Police Department released sketches of the men Friday based on an interview with a witness in Montreal in July.

The sketches show how the men would have looked in 1969, when 19-year-old Reet Jurvetson’s body was found stabbed 150 times in the upper torso and neck.

Jurvetson, who wasn’t carrying identification, became known as Jane Doe No. 59 until detectives identified her last year using DNA from her sister, who had recognized a photo of the woman’s body posted online.

The Montreal witness told detectives about meeting Jurvetson and a man known as either “John,” or the name’s French pronunciation, “Jean,” at a cafe in Montreal in 1969. The witness helped detectives draw a sketch of the man and an associate of his who might go by the same name.

Jurvetson’s sister, Anne Jurvetson, said in a statement in April that her free-spirited and naive sister moved to Los Angeles in 1969 after becoming smitten with a man named John.

Detectives also revealed Friday that Anne Jurvetson recently had found a postcard of the California coast that her sister wrote to their parents on Oct. 31, 1969, two weeks before her death.

It read: “The weather is nice and the people are kind. I have a nice little apartment. I go frequently to the beach. Please write to me. Hugs, Reet.”

The postcard, the last Jurvetson’s family would hear from her, was sent from an apartment in Hollywood.

Jurvetson’s body was found in dense brush off Mulholland Drive, about 6 miles from the site of the August 1969 Manson family killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, and four others.

Detective Luis Rivera said in April that LAPD hadn’t found any concrete link between the cases.

He said detectives uncovered no new information when they interviewed Manson about Jurvetson early this year. Manson and many of his followers had been arrested the month before Jurvetson’s death.

LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT VIA AP Sketches show two men police are looking for in connection with the death of a 19-year-old Canadian woman found stabbed to death in Los Angeles in 1969 near the site of the most notorious Manson family killings.