Saw Ramirez Near Victim’s Home, Woman Says

An Arcadia housewife testified in court Wednesday that she saw accused Night Stalker Richard Ramirez with a cat perched on his neck and a container of ice cream in his hand within a block of the residence of a 32-year-old Arcadia woman on the night before the woman was discovered dead.

Elizabeth Roybal, testifying at Ramirez’ Municipal Court preliminary hearing, said she saw the 26-year-old drifter from El Paso outside a Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant in Arcadia on June 27, 1985, and that “he looked strange to me.”

Ramirez, charged with a total of 14 murders and 54 other felonies in Los Angeles County, allegedly slashed, stabbed and beat Patty E. Higgins, a schoolteacher, in her home. Roybal said she first notified police of her sighting of Ramirez in late August.