In Memory

Sunny Dagowitz



 
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09/06/12 06:59 AM #1    

Alan Duke

Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) Sunny Dagowitz   2008-03-24 00:24:53.0
 
Sunny never got to realize her potential. While a freshman at UCLA, she was stabbed to death in a parking garage. The case was never solved.
Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) Laurie Indenbaum (Class of '70)   2009-02-22 12:59:35.0
 
I was friends with Sunny in 7th grade at Audubon Junior High School. Her parents doted on her. She was bright, so when they moved so she could go to BHHS, she skipped into the class ahead of me. She wasn't popular, but she was interesting and ambitious. I was intimidated by her superior knowledge of the world, literature (the adult stuff); she was a regular reader of Playboy (I mean she READ it). She adored movies and music. She was a straight shooter, a valuable and loyal friend, an insightful, articulate critic. The senseless way she died was a waste and destroyed her parents. I wish she had lived to grow up. I imagine her becoming a journalist, the kind of woman who is so good at what she does, appearance is immaterial. With success and confidence she would have become attractive and admired. People would have looked at her "before and after" pictures and said, wow, how great she looks; they would have seen her at reunions and been amazed.
Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) Rick Caesar   2009-04-01 15:30:38.0
 
I knew Sunny only a little in HS, but recall sensing something both deep and somehow humorous in her nature. The horror I felt when I just randomly discovered her murder, almost 40 years ago now, still chills me to the bone.
Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) Jill Abrams   2009-05-04 16:54:52.0
 
I was just getting to know Sunny senior year. She was considering going to Pitzer College (where I was planning to go) and I was hoping we could get to know one another better there. She was so sweet. I've often thought, if only.....
So sorry about the way she left this world.
Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) Deborah Winer   2009-06-24 12:35:36.0
 
I had lunch with Sunny at UCLA a day or two before she was killed, and I will never forget my shock at hearing of her death. She had some health problems which made it difficult for her to exert herself, but she ignored that and was a real go-getter, interested in everything and everyone. She had remarkable determination and courage, and I have always remembered her for that.
Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) Mark Brooks   2009-08-20 07:28:47.0
 
Didn't know Sunny in High School.
Had the good fortune of knowing her at UCLA.
Her smile was radiant.
Heidi Hilb and I just had dinner with Sunny at her parents house. A pretty hilarious evening.

One day I got a call in the late efternoon from her mother saying she was looking for Sunny and was worried something was wrong. I told her I hadn't heard from her and if I did I'd have her call her. Later that night Heidi and I were watching the evening news and the headline was Sunny's murder. Surreal. Horrible. Mind chilling.

I then realized her mother was probably calling me at the same time the event was happening. Made me sick.

Gone but not fgorgotten you are.
Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) Robin Reid   2009-09-12 08:54:28.0
 
I was on the road and we were staying at the old Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Blvd. I was sitting downstairs in Duke's having a cup of coffee when I recognized the girl sitting next to me at the counter. I said "Are you Sunny?".She said "My name is Sharon". I said "Well did you used to be Sunny?" She said "Yes". I said "Well I'm Robin and I used to be Robbie!" We fell about the place laughing.
Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) Carol Tarcher Ellis   2010-02-28 10:58:51.0
 
Sunny and I were very good friends sophomore year and junior year. We told each other everything. After we saw Dr. Zhivago she said that she wanted 21 (?!!) kids, with one named Lara.

Senior year we drifted apart, but I knew that we would be friends again "someday." We just wanted different things.

The day she was stabbed to death the murderer killed three people. I think of Sunny and her parents with love.

I still have the jewelry box that she bought in Canada for me for my birthday.
Re: Dagowitz, Sunny (Deceased 1970) victor johnson   2012-01-04 11:56:12.0
 
I think I knew her briefly at UCLA. I think we had a lower division history class together. I would some times see her eating a snack on the grassy area near Powell library. She was very open and friendly and was not concerned that I am black.

 


07/25/17 07:25 AM #2    

Alan Duke

This comment is on behalf of Toni Stasser (former Principal at Hawthorne Elementary School)

 

I attended Audubon Junior High with Sunny. She was a year older and we sat next to each other in an art class. I just remember how outgoing and fun she was. She went on to BHHS where I, many years later, became an administrator. As I worked in the district, I often thought of her. She probably had a wonderful following of friends at the high school.  Although these many years have passed, I still think of her and of the tragedy that took her life at such a young age.


12/14/22 02:59 PM #3    

Albert Rosenblatt

זיכרונה לברכה  May her name be a blessing. Let's take a moment to remember a classmate whose life was cut short December 16, 1970

 


12/15/22 07:39 PM #4    

Mark Brooks

As freshmen at UCLA, Heidi Hilb and I dated and became a couple. One of Heidi's close girlfriends then was Sunny. After a while,the three of us would get together socializing-- in the park, restaurants, music. Sunny was always kind, caring, witty, fun, authentic, without ego or agenda, with a great laugh and sparkling eyes that shone her spirit.  One night, Sunny and her parents invited the two of us over for dinner. There was an abundance of food, joy, laughter and free conversation: down  to Earth parents who obviously loved and revolved about Sunny.

Not long after, at home with Heidi, the phone rang and I answered. It was winter and nighttime came early. Sunny's mom called and asked if Sunny was with us or if we knew where she was. I said I didn't but I'd let her know if I did.  She said she had a gut feeling something was wrong.  In hindsight, it was probably around when Sunny was attacked.  A few hours later, Heidi got a call from her father, warning her to be careful that the evening news alerted  a student had been murdered at a UCLA parking structure. He then said the student's name. Heidi screamed, turned crimson and yelled it was Sunny.We both lost it.

After we both consoled one another,  we went to what turned out to be a vigil at their parents house. To be there for the parents and I suppose ourselves. The scene was filled with UCLA Administrators and Police. We sat for a while next to her parents and left.

The extreme brutality and evil that preyed upon Sunny... I don't really have the words. It is awful, tragic, my heart aches when I remember and think of the last time I saw her.

Albert your note inspired me to write.

Alan yes her murder is still unsolved.                                                                                                                       


12/16/22 06:23 AM #5    

Alan Wolfson

I doubt I'll be able to match Mark's detail and eloquence, but since he and I were room-mates in the Spring of 1970, wanted to add my two cents worth.  As was the case with Mark, Sunny and I barely knew each other in high school, but we became friendly during the freshman year at UCLA.  I have a visual memory of us talking about music (think it may have been "Abbey Road") right before Psych 101 class (Dr. Faber).   I had left UCLA to go to Occidental College in fall 1970, so first learned about Sunny's murder from Mark (if memory serves me well).  What a goddamned shame.  52 years ago today.  Sunny was a beautiful person in every way, and I still miss and remember her fondly.


12/16/22 11:13 AM #6    

Bette Levine

You know, people with contacts in the media this could not be a cold case. DNA is a new science. They must have an evidence file! This could be looked at again. Maybe I'm watching too much tv. But dna has changed everything!

thanks,

bette


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