Linda Sobek
We are all connected in this small world that often seems so vast.
Dear Linda,
You and your friend came by the casting office to audition for the movie everybody wanted to be in…HEAT. As one of the assistants to casting director Bonnie Timmermann part of my job was to polaroid each auditioning actor/actress and write his/her contact information on the back for my boss’ files. Let me add that at this time everyone on the production worked long hours and tension was high. Admittidly, I was becoming resentful prepping other actors daily to do what I wanted to be doing and was falling into a rut of negativity.
After you and your friend checked in the three of us headed outside so I could take your polaroids. Your eager excitement reminded me of the blessed opportunity I had been given to “Learn the Biz” while pursuing my own acting career. Since you were in high heels, you giggled and teasingly scrunched down so that all 5’1″ of me could take your picture. Never in a million years would I have guessed that the next time our paths would cross would be when I accompanied my father ,who at the time worked Homicide for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, to work to help sort tips into piles about who may have taken and probably by this time murdered you.
By all accounts, you regularly took safety measures when going on modeling shoots; all it takes is one cut corner. Sadly, you missed your Married with Children audition but that let your family, friends know something was very wrong and to start a search. Years later I came across an obit a biker wrote in a motorcycle magazine ruing the fact you hadn’t had him or “…another Brother” accompany you for your last photo session. I have to agree with him…cowards like your killer, Charles Rathbun, don’t dare show their true colors with real tough guys around!
Remakes of your ordeal play out on television programs as a cautionary tale to starry eyes. Your loving heart and soul shine through beautiful beaming eyes in photgraphs provided by family, friends…your mother’s tears and pain make clear you are not forgotten. RIP Dear, Linda.