| For Immediate Release September 5, 2006 |
Contact: | Susan Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel (714) 347-8408 Office (714) 323-4486 Cell |
MAN GETS LIFE IN PRISON FOR 1987 COLD CASE MURDER OF A HUNTINGTON BEACH WOMAN
*He confessed 18 years later as part of a 12-step recovery program
SANTA ANA – Louis Bostich, 45, pled guilty today to murder and will serve life in prison for murdering a Huntington Beach woman, Jamie Vitteli, in 1987.
On May 28, 1987, Bostich met the victim, Vitteli, at a bar in Huntington Beach and went home with her. After taking methamphetamine, Bostich took a champagne bottle and smashed it over Vitteli’s head, and then killed her by stabbing her with a knife. He then fled the scene and the murder remained unsolved as a cold case until 2005.
In 2005, Bostich was participating in an Alcoholics Anonymous program, where he was encouraged to right his past wrongs. Step number 8 of the 12-step recovery program advocates that the addicts make a list of all the people they have harmed, and be willing to make amends to them. Step number 9 encourages direct action be taken in order to make those amends whenever possible. Bostich turned himself in on August 25, 2005, to police in Redding and confessed to killing Vitteli 18 years earlier. He was charged with murder on August 26, 2005.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.
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