$50,000 reward offered in 2012 killing of mother of three

Suzanna Reyes was the first to get the call about her mother.

Reyes, now 38, picked up the phone at 10:15 p.m. nearly three years ago. A family friend who lived in her mother’s neighborhood told her that her mother had been shot. Reyes and her grandmother rushed to the hospital.

About 9:40 p.m. on Dec. 11, 2012, police found Reyes’ mother, Lorri Anderson, 51, on the sidewalk near West 8th and South Coronado streets in Westlake suffering from gunshot wounds. Anderson would later die at a hospital.

On Thursday, Councilman Gil Cedillo asked for the public’s help in finding Anderson’s killer and announced a $50,000 reward.

“I get the sense that somebody saw somebody,” he said.

The last time Reyes saw her mother was the weekend before she was shot. Reyes was pregnant with her second child, and visited her mother at her Westlake apartment to show her an ultrasound of her daughter.

“She was ecstatic, happy,” Reyes said. Anderson, a mother of three, would never get to meet two of Reyes’ children.

Family said that Anderson was a giving person who tried to help friends overcome addictions, gave away food to others who were less fortunate and tried to find shelters for people who didn’t have a place to live.

Nicole Gilbert, 26, said that she didn’t fully understand how generous her mother was until the funeral when she heard the stories.

On Thursday at a news conference, she pleaded with the public to help find the killer.

“My family deserves closure,” she said. “Be braver than the coward that caused this entire mess.”

For Anderson’s family, the loss is felt daily. Gilbert said she misses car rides to school, with her mother blasting her favorite singer, Garth Brooks, on the radio.

Anderson’s mother Myra Hazlett, said that she has nightmares of her daughter lying motionless in the street. Anderson’s 54th birthday would have been Oct. 21. For Hazlett, it’s a reminder that she will never be able to celebrate it with her in person.

“I can’t do it on the phone; I can’t take her to dinner,” she said. “We can’t have a family celebration of her life.”

Instead, Hazlett said, she goes to the cemetery in Los Angeles.

“I can talk to her, but she can’t talk to me,” she said.

Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at (213) 486-6858. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

Photo: Nicole Gilbert, 26, addresses the media at a news conference to announce a $50,000 reward in her mother’s killing. Behind her at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters are her sister, Suzanna Reyes, right, and grandmother, Myra Hazlett. Credit: Nicole Santa Cruz / Los Angeles Times