16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com MONDAY, NOV. 11, 1991 WAS A HOLIDAY, VETERANS DAY. But for those close to the Smith family, it was a day that would be painfully etched in memory, and one that would remain a mystery for 33 years. Their restaurant, Smith’s on El Camino Real North in Prunedale, was ordinarily closed on Mondays, a fact that employees and regulars at the restaurant knew well. The owners of the restaurant, Anna Smith, then 63, and George Smith, 67, would run errands and get the books in order. While Anna went grocery shopping, George did payroll and remained with his wife’s bedridden mother, Eva Thompson, 79, in the shared building—half restaurant, half home. By 7:30 that night, Anna had returned to find her mother in her hospital-style bed covered in blood. Her husband was across the hall in their room, lying on the floor on his back. She fetched her neighbors, Ron and Jeri Rader, for help. Jeri called 911 and Ron joined Anna in returning to the premises, assessing the scene and checking for George’s pulse with no success. An investigation later found that Eva Thompson had been beaten, strangled and her throat had been slashed. Her sternum and all of the ribs on her right side were fractured. The telephone cord next to her bed had been pulled out, with the receiver tossed across the room. George Smith had been stabbed 11 times in their bedroom, which also served as the business office for the restaurant. The room had been ransacked with drawers left open, the mattress moved and items strewn about. Although extensive evidence was recovered at the crime scene—a kitchen knife, parts of Thompson’s nightshirt, and shoe impressions left by the back door, among other items—it was not sufficient in proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, who the killer was. This was in 1991— long before forensic DNA analysis became one of the most powerful tools in modern criminal investigations, helping solve cases like these. Thirty-three years passed. Then in 2024, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office charged a suspect with the murders. A year later, on Aug. 26, 2025, a jury convicted a former employee of the restaurant, Ira Bastian, now 86 years old, of two counts of first-degree murder for Smith and Thompson. The jury also found the special-circumstance allegations to be true: that Bastian murdered Smith and Thompson during a burglary, and that he personally used a knife to kill both victims. It’s estimated that there are over 340,000 unsolved DANIEL DREIFUSS
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