Ex-Redondo woman killed

Charity worker found strangled in her Moscow home

Marie Montgomery

Daily Breeze

An employee of the Palos Verdes Estates-based Adam Children's Fund was found strangled in her Moscow apartment Tuesday, the apparent victim of a robbery.

Laura Binkley, 32, had lived in Redondo Beach from 1991 until July, when she decided to go to Russia and work for the fund, which helps coordinate international adoptions and assists orphanages.

"Her job was to go into various orphanages and just love the children there," said the Rev. Wayne Coombs, founder of the fund. "She was a liaison for us."

Binkley may have been murdered by visitors to her apartment who apparently had stolen her keys late last month.

On Oct. 3, she faxed a letter to a friend in West Los Angeles describing how she had discovered her keys were missing after some dinner guests had seen her take money out of her safe to pay rent. She wrote that she was staying in her apartment to guard her belongings.

"I really wanted to go out, but . . . if I had, they would have come and taken all my nice things plus beaucoup bucks in the safe," she wrote.

Russian officials told the Adam Children's Fund that Binkley probably was killed over the weekend.

Coombs, who is pastor of Lunada Bay Christian Fellowship in Palos Verdes Estates, met Binkley in Toronto in 1991 and persuaded her to come work for his church. She worked in the youth ministry with high school students.

"She made a lot of friends here for the short time she was here," Coombs said.

"Earlier this year she told me, `Wayne, I feel called to go to work in Russia for the Adam Children's Fund.' She was over there doing a great job for us."

Binkley is survived by her parents, Fay and Ray Binkley of Canada, and other relatives.

A memorial service for Binkley will be at 10 a.m. Sunday at Lunada Bay Christian Fellowship, 2161 Via Olivera, Palos Verdes Estates.