Suspect Arrested In 1985 Killing Of TV Director Barry Crane After LAPD Investigation
The FBI has arrested the main suspect in the death TV director Barry Crane, a killing that had gone unsolved for decades. Edwin Hiatt was taken into custody today in North Carolina and is awaiting extradition to California.
Crane, whose dozens of TV directing credits included multiple episodes of Mission Impossible, The Six Million Dollar Man and Wonder Woman, was killed in his North Hollywood home on July 5, 1985. His strangled and bludgeoned body found by a housekeeper in the garage of his luxury townhouse.
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The case had gone unsolved for decades when in 2006, and again last year, a detective from the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division requested that evidence found at the scene of the crime be retested. In July, that evidence turned up a forensic match to Hiatt, who resided in North Carolina.
On March 8, detectives traveled to North Carolina to question Hiatt. During the interview, police say, he admitted to killing Crane. RHD detectives then presented the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which filed one count of murder against him and issued an arrest warrant. Earlier today, the FBI Fugitive Task Force arrested him.
Crane, also a world champion bridge player, directed episodes numerous police dramas, including The Streets of San Francisco, CHiPs, S.W.A.T., Police Story, Police Woman and Hawaii Five-0. He was 57 when we was killed. Police have not said what connection, if any, he had to Hiatt.
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