Arrest Made In Cold Case Murder Of Prominent TV Director

STUDIO CITY, CA — An FBI Fugitive Task Force thursday in North Carolina arrested a man suspected of murdering a prominent television director in his Studio City home more than three decades ago.

Persistence and technology helped crack the case, bringing a resolution to a case that shocked the community, according to investigators.

It was a housekeeper who found the body of director Barry Crane in his North Hollywood home wrapped in his bedding on the garage floor in 1985. He had been bludgeoned and strangled. Crane’s vehicle was stolen and later recovered with forensic evidence, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Crane was a prominent Hollywood television director with credits including "The Incredible Hulk," "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," "Police Woman," "Police Story," and "The Streets of San Francisco." He was also known as a world-class champion Bridge player, who competed all over the country.

With few clues, the case stalled and remained unsolved for several years. In 2006 and in 2018, a Los Angeles Police Department detective from Robbery Homicide Division had the evidence retested. The second time, he got a hot. In July 2018, the detective got a forensic match to Edwin Hiatt, a resident of North Carolina.

LAPD detectives flew to North Carolina in March and interviewed Hiatt. According to police, Hiatt admitted to killing Barry Crane. They got an arrest warrant for one count of murder against Hiatt and the FBI Fugitive Task Force arrested him in North Carolina Friday. He is awaiting extradition to Los Angeles.

However, Hiatt denied to reporters that he knew anything about the murder.

As he was led out of a sheriff's station to a waiting car, the handcuffed, gray-bearded suspect told reporters he has been living in Burke County, North Carolina, and working at a Mercedes-Benz auto shop in neighboring Caldwell County.

He said he has no recollection of the killing, but added, ``Anything's possible back then. I was big into drugs."

City News Service contributed to this report.