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Services Sunday for area woman slain in London
Alyson Kaplan, of Agoura Hills, killed last month

By Brad Smith
February 22, 2003

Funeral services for an Agoura Hills woman found slain in London last month have been set for this weekend.

Alyson Kaplan, 20, a former Moorpark College student, was traveling in England in January when she disappeared from a London street after her plans were disrupted by a severe winter storm. Her body was found Jan. 31 in a suburb of the city.

"She was a great girl; they couldn't have found a bigger-hearted, beautiful woman than that girl," said Steve Bennett of Agoura Hills, a family friend whose daughter was a classmate of Kaplan's.

"The family are still grieving; this girl touched a lot of lives. ... There have been hundreds of people here (at the Kaplan home) every day."

A suspect, Robert Noble, 28, turned himself in to police a few days after Kaplan's body was discovered. He was being held pending trial on murder charges in London.

Services for Kaplan, who had been accepted at the University of Pittsburgh, are set for Sunday. A graveside service is set for 3 p.m. at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park, 5600 Lindero Canyon Road, Westlake Village, cemetery officials said.

A memorial service is set for 4 p.m. Sunday at Calvary Community Church, 5495 Via Rocas, also in Westlake Village, church officials said.

Both services will be open to the public, organizers said.

Kaplan was delayed in London Jan. 30 by a blizzard that shut down much of the city's transit system.

She apparently was last seen outside a railway terminal at Victoria Station, where she had been dropped off when buses stopped running late that night.

That delay prevented her from meeting a friend, who contacted police and reported her missing. Kaplan's body was discovered Jan. 31 in a hotel room a short distance from the station.

"She was basically abandoned with no place to go in the middle of the night, (and) we're assuming the suspect lured her into the hotel," said Bennett, who traveled to Britain with the Kaplans to assist the British authorities.

"I walked it. I would say it's probably less than a quarter mile to the station from there."

The British and U.S. authorities have been extremely helpful, Bennett said.

"The U.S. embassy has been involved in this, and they've been fantastic," he said.

"So have the London police, and the family can't thank them enough for how they've handled this. It's way beyond anything we've seen in this country."

Kaplan is survived by her parents, Joanne and Don Kaplan; her grandmother Ruth Kaplan-Solton; brother, Drew Kaplan, and her sisters, Tara Kaplan and Lisa Kaplan-Klenner.