Moscow police arrest 7 in slaying of ex-RB woman

Marie Montgomery

Daily Breeze

Moscow police have arrested seven suspects in connection with last month's murder of a former Redondo Beach woman, whose letters to Southern California friends prior to her death yielded key pieces of evidence in the case.

Laura Binkley, 32, who was working in Russia for the Palos Verdes Estates-based Adam Children's Fund charity, was found strangled in her Moscow apartment Oct. 12. Police believe she was killed Oct. 10.

Police arrested six men and one woman in late October, said Dave Peters with the Adam Children's Fund, who recently returned from Moscow.

Confessions from the suspects indicate that two of them killed Binkley and the others participated in a plot to steal several hundred dollars from the safe in her apartment. Evidence in letters

The letters from Binkley to friends in Los Angeles provided evidence that led to the arrests, Peters said.

Binkley wrote that her apartment keys were stolen by some visitors who had seen her open her safe.

She described one of the visitors, a woman, as a "backsliding Christian" whom she was attempting to befriend.

Binkley decided not to leave her apartment for a few days so she could guard her belongings, then got the locks changed. When Binkley confronted the woman about taking the apartment keys, the woman apologized and the two went to church services Oct. 10.

"The whole thing was a subversive act to get into Laura's apartment," Peters said.

Binkley and the woman returned to Binkley's security apartment building together that evening, and the woman left open the security doors behind them so her accomplices could enter, Peters said.

Mourned by Russian children

In addition to her fellow workers at the Adam Children's Fund, Binkley was mourned by hundreds of children in the two Russian orphanages where she worked.

"It was such a shock to everyone," Peters said of the murder.

He said the loss of Binkley was devastating, but his group is still serving Russian orphans and is hoping to find a married couple to continue Binkley's work.

Wayne Coombs, founder of the Adam Children's Fund and pastor of Lunada Bay Christian Fellowship, met Binkley in 1991 and asked her to work for his church.

She worked in the youth ministry with high school students before she decided to go to Russia in July.