Grieving Families Seek Help Finding Suspects : Crimes: Two sets of survivors issue pleas for information that might solve the tragedies. In both cases, $25,000 rewards are offered.

One was a 79-year-old grandfather, the other a 23-year-old Pierce College honors student and mother ready to transfer to a university. And though both died violent deaths on busy San Fernando Valley streets, neither one of their killers has been caught.

So on Thursday, during separate news conferences, two sets of survivors sought the public’s help in finding the culprits: the driver of the speeding car that hit Harry Balbert on Christmas Eve and the man who shot Michele Dawn Smith on a sunny afternoon four days after Thanksgiving.

“I had to bury a daughter, and this fellow is still walking the streets,” said Barry Smith, near the spot on Saticoy Street in Canoga Park where Michele was shot. “He is a danger to our community. He obviously has no [compunction] about killing people.”

Police have released a composite drawing of the man they believe is the woman’s killer and said he may have lived in the neighborhood. He is described as a Latino; age 25 to 30; 5 feet, 7 inches to 5 feet, 9 inches tall; weighing about 185 pounds, with a thick, neatly trimmed mustache.

Across town in Sherman Oaks, Barbara Gauthier similarly asked for leads to the motorist who struck her father while he was crossing Ventura Boulevard mid-block near Lemona Avenue. Witnesses told police the car was traveling about 40 mph in a 25 mph zone.

The impact was so severe, Gauthier said, that pieces of the car fell off and Balbert’s body was thrown more than 100 feet. His body landed in front of the restaurant where Gauthier and her two daughters were waiting to join him for a Christmas Eve dinner. On Thursday, their public plea for tips was made where he died, between the La Frite and La Pergola restaurants.

“Our family is not looking to be vindictive, we only want to bury my father in peace,” Gauthier said. “If this person were innocent, wouldn’t it be better to come forward?”

Police say that because Balbert was crossing the street mid block--rather than at a marked pedestrian crossing or intersection--the driver of the vehicle may not have committed a crime unless he was speeding. Fleeing from the scene of a serious accident, however, is a felony.

Both families said their loved ones are sorely missed, with the holidays only adding to the pain of their loss.

“We didn’t have a Christmas,” Gauthier said.

“Christmas was terrible,” said Sharon Whiteside, the mother of Michele Smith.

A straight-A student of microbiology, Smith was walking to a corner store last month to buy cigarettes and get change for the laundry. Police believe she was shot after the killer struggled with her over her purse.

She left behind a 3-year-old son. “She was a poet, a painter . . . a good mom to her 3-year-old . . . she did a little bit of everything,” said her father.

“Nothing in that purse was worth dying for,” said Det. Michelle Johnson, who is investigating the case.

The city is offering $25,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of suspects in both cases.

Balbert was a retired pen-and-watch salesman. He carried biscuits in his pockets for dogs, his daughter said, and pens for people.

“Everybody called him Uncle Harry,” she said. “He’d say ‘Here, have a pen.’ He lived like a 30- or 40-year-old.”

For both families, the deaths are part of a longer string of tragedies.

During the past three months, the boyfriend of Michele Smith’s sister was stabbed to death in Kern County, and Michele’s stepfather died Nov. 13 after a long illness.

Balbert’s 50-year-old son suffered a severe coronary earlier this month and remains hospitalized and unaware of his father’s death.

“We haven’t told him yet,” Gauthier said.