The Crossbow Murder

Arlene Hoffman

“Death by crossbow” sounds like something you’d see in medieval records, or an episode of “Midsomer Murders,” not in a modern-day upscale Southern California neighborhood.  But as the following case will show, life is full of surprises.

Arlene Hoffman led a busy life in the background of California’s often-twisted, but admittedly rarely dull, political scene.  She began her involvement with politics  when she worked for the millionaire industrialist and art-collector Norton Simon, who made a failed Senate run in 1970.  She participated in Jesse Unruh’s unsuccessful 1973 campaign to become mayor of Los Angeles, and went on to become the secretary for Fred Harper, a well-known political consultant who disappeared off the coast of Baja California in 1974.

In 1976, Hoffman was called as a witness before the Orange County Grand Jury.  The hospital she was then working for was run by Dr. Louis Cella, who at the time was California’s largest campaign contributor.  Cella was being investigated for billing Medi-Cal for phantom patients, and then steering the money to numerous political campaigns.  Cella was eventually convicted of income-tax evasion, Medicare and Medi-Cal fraud, embezzlement, and conspiracy.  Investigators suspected that Hoffman was assisting Cella in his dodgy political schemes, and then lying about it to try to protect her employee, but apparently they could not prove any criminal activity on her part.  Probably the most notorious campaign Cella and Hoffman were involved in was when they helped to elect Robert Citron to the position of Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector.  Citron subsequently pleaded guilty for his role in Orange County’s 1994 bankruptcy, which was, at the time, the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.

One might be pardoned for thinking that Mrs. Hoffman was something of a political jinx.  However, despite her involvement in an impressive list of political misadventures, in December 1994, the 57-year-old Hoffman was hired as personal secretary to Jim Silva, who had just been elected to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.  Hoffman, who was recently widowed (her husband Joel died of cancer in March 1994,) appeared to be getting her life back on track.  The medical costs from Joel’s long illness forced the couple into bankruptcy, but those proceedings had recently concluded, and Arlene had just received a $500,000 life insurance payment.  Those who knew Arlene described her as a kind, eminently trustworthy and dependable person.  She was devoted to her only child, 25-year-old Charles, whom the Hoffmans had adopted when he was in his mid-teens.  (After serving four years in the Marine Corps, in 1994 Charles was a student at Fullerton College.)

On December 30, 1994, Hoffman unaccountably failed to show up for work.  Calls to her cell phone went unanswered.  When nightfall began to arrive with no word from Hoffman, Jim Silva became concerned enough to call Sheriff Brad Gates to have deputies visit Hoffman’s Laguna Niguel condo.  When the officers entered her residence, they found Hoffman’s body lying in the hallway, with a fatal wound in her chest caused by a “hunting-type arrow,” possibly fired by a crossbow.  (The arrow was never recovered.)  Sometime between 7:30 p.m. on December 29 and 7:30 the following morning, someone committed a very unusual murder.

Hoffman’s front door was found unlocked, and there was no sign of a break-in.  Nothing appeared to be missing from the condo.  Hoffman’s poodle was found wandering around the entryway, but a previous owner had arranged for the animal’s ability to bark to be surgically removed.  The dog was still wearing a leash, suggesting that Hoffman had been attacked immediately after taking her pet for a walk.  Police found partial fingerprints on a stairway that they believed belonged to the killer, but no match was ever made.

This proved to be one of those murders where the investigation hit an immediate brick wall.  Despite her proximity to some shady political dealings, police found no obvious link between them and her murder.  Everyone who had even the slightest contact with Hoffman was interviewed.  Every archery and sporting goods store in the area was investigated for possible leads.  At every turn, investigators came up empty-handed.  As far as anyone could tell, no one had a motive to kill Arlene Hoffman--except, someone did.

To date, the case remains one of those unsettling mysteries.