COUPLE SLAIN, HOUSE TORCHED.

Byline: Orith Goldberg and Joe Giordano Staff Writers

WEST HILLS - An elderly West Hills couple were brutally murdered early Monday and their house was set on fire apparently to hide the crime, police said.

William Lasky, 76, tried to fend off his attackers in an office while his wife, Bertha, 73, was in a different part of the house in the 7200 block of Pomelo Drive, said Senior Lead Officer Peter Vanderburgh of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Division.

Their bodies were found in the bedroom, which was set on fire, along with an office and adjoining hallway.

``It's a brutal murder,'' said police Lt. Tom Smart.

Shocked neighbors said the couple had just returned Thursday from a cruise vacation.

``We are just about the closest people to them in the neighborhood. There is just no reason for this to have happened to them,'' said Norman Golliday, who said he has known the Laskys since moving into the quiet, middle-class neighborhood 16 years ago.

``My wife would go for walks with Bertha almost every morning. They were not flashy people; they were quiet people,'' Golliday said.

Firefighters responding to a private alarm found the bodies about 6:20 a.m.

The condition of the bodies indicates that both died before the fire was set, Vanderburgh said.

The firefighters removed the bodies from the bedroom and placed them in the back yard until coroner's officials arrived to examine them, authorities said.

The fire, which was extinguished in 20 minutes, was limited to the interior of the home.

According to neighbors, William Lasky was a cable company executive and Bertha was a docent at the Getty Center Museum.

Golliday said one of the Laskys' daughters is a professor of special education at California State University, Northridge.

While they did not release a cause of death or possible motives, LAPD investigators have ``physical evidence that indicates that this is possibly a homicide,'' said Capt. William Sutton of the West Valley Division.

``Our investigation is in progress as we speak.''

Sutton did say there was fire damage in several rooms of the house, which suggests the blaze was set to cover up the crime.

After a fire alarm at the Laskys' home went off, the couple's daughter was notified by the alarm company and she called Golliday's wife, Faye, to check on her parents, Golliday said. ``I went up there but couldn't rouse anybody,'' Faye Golliday said.

Jon Scheuerman, who had been trimming the couple's trees for the past six or seven years, said they were two of the kindest people he knew.

``It's impossible to believe someone would do this. . . . They were always home together; they were just nice people,'' he said.

Cheryl Kaidin, 50, a neighbor of the Laskys, said they were a lovely couple.

``They were just friendly, warm and sweet,'' she said.

Neighbor Shannon Monahan, 45, said the thought of such an atrocity occurring in the neighborhood was very scary.

``There are a lot of children that live in this neighborhood; if it was random, it's frightening,'' Monahan said.

Police had cordoned off Pomelo Drive just past several houses in both directions from the Lasky home while investigators from the coroner's office, the arson unit of the Los Angeles Fire Department and police using dogs scoured the inside and outside of the home for evidence.

At one point, detectives were seen combing the top of a steep hill in the Laskys' large back yard. Other investigators removed the front door and examined it for several minutes.

The lack of information given out by police worried several neighbors.

``The scary part is that if this was a random thing, it could have happened to any one of us on the street,'' said Frank Ashmore, who said he knew the couple, but not well.

``My question is: Will we ever know what really happened? Did they have something that someone wanted? There has to be some reason.''

Staff Writer Brent Hopkins contributed to this report.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, map

Photo: (1) WILLIAM LASKY

(2) BERTHA LASKY

Map: Fatal fire, 7200 block of Pomelo Drive.