Playmate from Canada dead in murdersuicide - ProQuest!

Source URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/386713981/5F1F5A4A11494762PQ/14?

accountid=47446#!

Abstract (summary)!
The magazine's publisher, Hugh Hefner, said ''the death of [] comes as a
shock to us all.!
Playmate from Canada dead in murder-suicide!
Saturday, August 16, 1980!
LOS ANGELES CA -- LOS ANGELES (AP) - The nude body of Dorothy
Stratten, the Vancouver woman who is Playboy magazine's current
Playmate of the Year, was found yesterday sprawled on a bed in a Los
Angeles apartment.!
The 20-year-old had been killed with a shotgun blast in the face, apparently
by her estranged husband, Paul Snider, 29, formerly of Surrey, B.C., whose
unclothed body was lying nearby.!
A 12-gauge shotgun was on the floor under Mr. Snider's body and police
said the man apparently shot his wife and then killed himself.!
Police said the bodies were found at just after midnight in the two- story
apartment under a freeway in West Los Angeles that Mr. Snider - a booking
agent - shared with two other people. ''This is apparently a murder-suicide,''

said Police Lieutenant Glenn Ackerman. Police Lieutenant Dan Cooke said
the motive ''was apparently that he (Mr. Snider) was despondent over the
breakup of the marriage.'' Miss Stratten had appeared in several films,
most recently in They All Laughed, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and one
called Galaxina, a science-fiction film. She also had small roles in two
earlier films.!
Police Sergeant Glen Varner said a private detective who had been hired
by the husband talked to Mr. Snider on Thursday while Miss Stratten was in
the apartment, although she had been living elsewhere for the past two
months.!
Lieut. Ackerman said the two apparently died some time Thursday
afternoon.!
Sgt. Varner said the private investigator later became worried when he
could not reach Mr. Snider by telephone, so he called the two other people
who lived in the apartment but who maintained separate bedrooms. They
opened Mr. Snider's door and found the couple dead.!
Miss Stratten, a former key-punch operator for British Columbia Telephone
Co., first met Mr. Snider in a Vancouver ice-cream bar, said Jim Merrill,
senior publicist at Playboy Publications.!
Mr. Snider urged Miss Stratten to enter Playboy's hunt for the 25thanniversary issue Playmate, said Mr. Merrill. The two were married about
that time. Miss Stratten worked briefly as a bunny in the Playboy Club
before appearing as the August, 1979, centrefold and last June she
appeared in the magazine as Playmate of the Year.!

The magazine's publisher, Hugh Hefner, said ''the death of Dorothy Stratten
comes as a shock to us all. She was a beautiful and talented woman.'' Miss
Stratten was proud of her Canadian upbringing. ''I'll always be a Canadian,''
she said in an interview when she was named Playmate of the Year last
April 29, ''and I'm very, very proud to be the first Canadian Playmate of the
Year.'' Miss Stratten's family name was Hoogstraten, which she shortened
to Stratten for Playboy. She once described herself as ''flat-chested and big
hands, plain face and no boy friends."!
Word count: 477!
All material copyright Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. or its licensors. All
rights reserved.!