LAKEPORT — Wednesday marks the sixth year since Barbara LaForge, 43, was shot and killed inside her downtown Lakeport business by an unidentified gunman.
Investigators said the suspect or suspects likely knew LaForge. There were no signs of forced entry or robbery, according to Lt. Brad Rasmussen of the Lakeport Police Department (LPD). A customer and neighboring business owner found LaForge in the back of her shop at approximately noon that day. They told police the door was ajar.
“We have suspects that we”re looking at, but I don”t want to get into any detail on that,” Rasmussen said.
The circumstances of the murder and the fallout afterward are discussed every year, according to Lakeport businesswoman Gail Salituri, whose art gallery shared office space with LaForge”s framing shop. To her, it seems no progress is being made in the effort to find the person responsible for her friend”s death, but not for lack of trying.
“I believe the police know who killed Barbara LaForge,” Salituri said.
Rasmussen would not say how many suspects are being pursued, but said a report from a forensic investigation firm, Behind the Tape, generated new leads early this year.
“We have items of evidence that we are still having tested and examined through the forensics lab at the California Department of Justice. Some of these testing processes take a considerable amount of time ? it”s not unusual for some testing to take a year or more,” Rasmussen said.
Cases where a suspect is in custody usually take priority during the forensic testing process, according to Rasmussen.
“We believe this case can be solved and we hope it will be at some point. This case has always been and will continue to be a priority for us, but there are times when, because of a lack of resources, you can”t do everything you would like to do,” Rasmussen said.
Lead investigator Detective Norm Taylor is the department”s full-time investigator on the case, Rasmussen said. Taylor is back on the case after he was on patrol duty this summer because the department is two officers short. Rasmussen said the city will not fill those positions during the 2008-09 budget year.
Since last year, a task force dedicated to the cold case was assembled of LPD officers, representatives from the Lake County District Attorney”s office, and a homicide investigator from the Clearlake Police Department. A $50,000 reward ? the maximum amount legally allowable ? is still offered through the California Governor”s office for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of a suspect or suspects, Rasmussen said. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the LPD at 263-5491.
Salituri said she is collecting money through the Barbara LaForge Memorial Fund she set up earlier this year at Westamerica Bank. The proceeds will go to help fund the domestic violence shelter Lake Family Resource Center is building.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com
