Terra Yvonne Trice, 45

Dec. 2, 2008, 2:28 p.m.

Terra Yvonne Trice, a 45-year-old black woman, was strangled to death Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the 17963 Ridgeway Drive in Granada Hills, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's records.

Her body was found in her kitchen that afternoon after neighbors called for help. She had been strangled with a coat hanger, according coroner's records.

LAPD officer were later called to investigate an assault in the 8700 block of Independence Ave. and arrested Michael Watkins, a 28-year old white man.

Investigators learned that he and Trice had been dating and he was later booked on suspicion of her murder.

As of Jan. 24, 2010, Watkins was incarcerated at Twin Towers Correctional Facility where he is being held in lieu of $1 million bail, according to jail records. His next scheduled court date is Feb. 4.

-- Megan Garvey

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Three reader comments

I worked at the same law firm (Robert Smylie and Associates) as Terra in the months before her tragic death. She was smart, gregarious, full of life and very self-possessed; and to be honest, flirted relentlessly with me, often inviting me to go ride horses that she owned with her in the mountains near her home. While I declined, I did admire her joie de vivre. After she left the firm, it was only three months perhaps before one of the attorneys who she'd been friends with informed me of her tragic and unexpected death. While we weren't close, it was hard to imagine Terra's laughing, enthusiastic, intellectually curious and persistent voice being silenced in such an untimely way. She was without a doubt a very successful woman and a genuinely good person, the world is diminished by her passing.

— Joseph Jan. 22, 2016 at 1:51 p.m.