Whatever happened to...?

Sometimes a story sticks in the readers' minds long after it has appeared on the front page. Here's a place to ask reporters for updates.

For example, a reader wonders what's happened with the women in their 70s who allegedly took out several life insurance policies on men, then killed them by running over them with a car.

Kathy Stewart in Victorville asks: "I continuously check the L.A. Times website for information on Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt. I understand their trial was supposed to start in the fall but here it is and no word in your paper about them or their trial. Would you please keep us up to date with their trial? They may not be famous like Phil Spector but some of us are still interested in other cases. Thank you."

A front-page profile of the women ran in August 2006. The most recent Times story, from March 30, 2007, reported that the women pleaded not guilty and prosecutors were considering seeking the death penalty against the two.

The word back from the California desk's Steve Clow, deputy editor/daily: "The women are being held without bail. There's a pretrial conference set for Thursday, when a trial date may be set. At this point, the pair has pleaded not guilty to murder charges and they are awaiting trial, which should be in mid-January, at the earliest."