Secret Service Offers Reward in Agent’s Slaying

The U.S. Secret Service announced Thursday that it is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the indictment of the killers of a special agent who was shot to death in Los Angeles nine years ago.

The announcement of the reward in the murder of Secret Service Agent Julie Y. Cross was timed to coincide with a televised re-creation of the killing scheduled to be broadcast on NBC’s “Unsolved Mysteries” next Wednesday.

Cross--described by officials as the first female federal law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty--was fatally shot during an apparent robbery attempt on June 4, 1980, while she was on surveillance duty on a counterfeiting case near Los Angeles International Airport.

After shooting Cross with a shotgun, her attackers wounded her partner, who survived and provided descriptions of the assailants.

“Despite extraordinary efforts by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Secret Service, the assailants still remain unidentified,” said Robert R. Snow, a Secret Service official in Washington. “We are appealing to the public for any information which would solve this tragic homicide.”

Richard J. Griffin, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Secret Service, said he believes the case will be solved as a result of the reward and the publicity that next week’s television show is expected to generate. Griffin said rewards were offered twice earlier in the case, but withdrawn when they failed to produce any investigative breakthroughs.

He said anyone with information about the murder should contact the Secret Service in Los Angeles at (213) 894-4830.