Death of a Cheerleader

Linda Sobek, 27, was a model and had cheered for the Los Angeles Raiders from 1988 to 1992. On November 16, 1995, she left a message on her answering machine saying she would be out on a photo shoot. The photographer was Charles Rathbun, 38, who lived in Hollywood. She never came home.

Days later, her portfolio photos and day planner turned up in trash cans along the Angeles Crest Highway, along with a Lexus lease agreement in Rathbun’s name. He was taken into custody on November 22 and later slashed his wrists in his jail cell. On November 24 he took investigators to a shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest, where Linda’s body was recovered. Rathbun claimed he had hit her by accident with a sport utility vehicle during a stunt shot. The autopsy found she had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated, injuries that did not fit his story. He then said she had died by accident during a struggle.

Police also found dozens of staged death-scene photographs in his home and contacted other models who had worked with him. Prosecutor Stephen Kay tried the case in Torrance. In November 1996, a jury convicted Rathbun of first-degree murder and sexual assault, and on December 16, 1996, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.