A 72-year-old man has been arrested--for the second time--for the cold case stabbing death of his wife. Considered a person of interest since the initial investigation into the brutal murder of 50-year-old Charlotte S. Cole, Richard Keith Cole managed to elude being named a suspect until April 2011, when he was arrested then released soon after pending further investigation.
Charlotte Cole was stabbed multiple times behind the Coco's restaurant on Las Tunas Drive in Arcadia on September 1, 2001. Her body was discovered slumped over the wheel of a white Ford Aerostar van in the parking lot behind the casual eatery, according to a 2004 news release issued by the Arcadia Police Department.
Witnesses reported seeing Charlotte Cole and another person inside the van engage in an argument prior to her death.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department say they worked in partnership with detectives from the Arcadia Police Department, and gathered evidence enough to seek a warrant for Cole's arrest. Cole was located Sunday, November 4 at a Pasadena restaurant, where he was taken into custody.
Richard Cole has been assigned to the Twin Towers correctional facility in Downtown Los Angeles where he remains jailed on $1,000,000 bail, according to LASD inmate search records.
UPDATE 11/6/12: Cole pleaded not guilty today in response to the charge of murder. He remains jailed on $1 million bail, and is due back in Pasadena Superior Court January 15, 2013 when a preliminary hearing date will be set, according to City News Service.
