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Family, friends mourn slain Pierce College student

By Rachel Uranga
Daily News Staff Writer

More than a dozen candles burned Friday outside the home of a 20-year-old Pierce College student who authorities say was killed two weeks ago while vacationing in London.

"Alyson, you will be in my heart forever," read one of the messages at the homemade memorial. Another simply said, "For our angel."

British authorities suspect that Alyson Kaplan was strangled by a transient who lured her into the Rama Hotel in Central London during a blizzard.

"There she was -- vulnerable, cold, stranded -- and there he was befriending her," said Martin Lee, detective chief inspector of the London Metropolitan Police Service Serious Crime Group West.

Lee said Kaplan had arrived at Victoria Station -- just blocks from Buckingham Palace -- on Jan. 30, after a week of traveling through Italy and England. She hoped to catch a bus to Bristol, where a friend was staying, but was stranded when a winter storm interrupted bus and rail lines.

As the Agoura High School graduate stood alone in front of Victoria Station, she was befriended by transient Robert Noble, who had been given a room in a nearby hotel by a local charity, Lee said.

Her body was discovered the next afternoon in Noble's room by the Rama Hotel manager, who'd been asked by a member of the charity group to investigate.

Noble turned himself in to officers at Brighton Police Station, about 40 miles from Central London, and he appeared to be intoxicated at the time, Lee said.

Noble is being held in a London jail and is scheduled to enter a plea April 7.

Grief-stricken family members remained secluded Friday in their hillside home.

Pictures placed by the family on a Web site show a svelte, long-haired young woman, smiling at the camera.

Below her picture, it reads, "When I am gone, release me, let me go. I have so many things to see and do. You mustn't tie yourself to me with tears. Be happy that we had so many years."