Hollywood — The body of 17-year-old daughter of actress Eloise Hardt and writer Hans Habe was found late Wednesday in a ravine off Mulholland Drive, sheriff’s officers said.
Authorities were still at the scene and the cause of death was not determined immediately. Early Monday morning, after a date, the blue-eyed, black-haired Marina disappeared. The possibility of kidnapping was under investigation by homicide officers.
Her father is writer Hans Habe of Zurich, Switzerland. Her mother, actress Eloise Hardt, divorced from Habe and remarried, said she was awakened at 3:30 a.m. by a loud auto muffler, hurried to a window and saw a man standing next to her daughter’s car.
Then a black sedan backed out of the driveway into the street and stopped long enough for the man to run over to it and climb into the passenger side, Miss hardt said. “Let’s go!” she thought he shouted. She said she couldn’t actually see her daughter. The black car sped away.
Sheriff’s deputies found the girl’s purse in her car. “She’s listed as missing,” said Det. Barrett Fitzgerald, “but…something might have happened, some foul play. She’s a real straight girl and she enjoyed a very adult relationship with her mother. There’s just no reason for her taking off this way if she is just on a lark.” He said the FBI was informed, but wasn’t actively participating in the search.
The girl’s father, author of “Christopher and his Father,” “The Mission,” and “A Thousand Shall Fall,” reportedly was on his way here from Switzerland.
“There’s not a single clue,” a friend of the family, Dorothy Blankfort, 58, told newsmen. “There’s been no contact, no call — nothing at all.”
Miss Habe, 113 pounds with brown hair, was on Christmas vacation from the University of Hawaii. She left Sunday afternoon to drive to John Hornburg, 22.
Hornburg and his parents are friends of the girl’s family, deputies said, He and Marina left about 8:30 p.m. to meet two other couples at a cafe on nearby Santa Monica Boulevard.
They drove back to his home about 11;30 p.m. Hornburg said. Deputies said Marina left the Hornburgs at 3:15 a.m. and drove her car home — a ride that normally takes about 20 minutes.
“She must have been followed and seen or something and abducted,” said Mrs. Blankfort. Marina was wearing a long brown coat with fur cuffs, brown pin-striped capri pants and a white turtleneck blouse. She is 5-foot-3.