MURDER, ARSON SUSPECTED IN BLAZE

The death of an elderly landlady in a fire at her Western Addition home --
where she battled drug dealers and kept a vigilant eye on her neighborhood
- -- is being investigated as a homicide and arson.

The 70-year-old woman, whom neighbors identified as Joyce Ruger, was found
dead about 6:45 a.m. Sunday in a four-alarm blaze at 719 Webster St. The
fast-moving fire gutted Ruger's four-unit Victorian and burned the top
floors of the row houses on either side.

Thirty-three people in 11 apartments were displaced by the fire.

A neighbor who saw the woman's body when firefighters brought it outside,
said Ruger had been tied up.

"Her hands were tied and her feet were tied," said Esaw Howard. "It's
amazing that someone would do that." He said another neighbor promptly
covered Ruger's body with a blanket to preserve her dignity.

Police would not confirm that the victim had been bound, but Lt. David
Robinson of the homicide division said her death is considered deliberate.

There were no obvious injuries to the woman's body, said Robinson, so it's
not yet known whether she died as a result of the fire or if she was killed
before it began.

The coroner planned an autopsy Monday to determine the cause of death. On
Sunday evening, the coroner's office had not confirmed the woman's identity.

"We are considering the area a crime scene," said Fire Department Lt. Ed
Campbell. "That is all we are saying at this time."

Homicide and arson investigators have teamed up to examine the crime scene,
and Robinson said detectives were tracking down a suspect.

"We have some strong leads on a couple individuals," he said. "It appears
to be a person she knew or who had access to her."

Neighbors described Ruger as a likeable, outspoken woman who kept a sharp
eye on neighborhood safety.

One apartment resident said Ruger often called police to complain about
drug sales in the block between Grove and Fulton streets.

"She was fighting the drug activity and working with the police," said
Alicia Bean, a tenant in one of Ruger's flats. "She was continually calling
the police."

"She was very energetic," Howard said. "I'd be out here in the morning and
she would always talk to me. She was active in the community, making sure
the street sweeper came by and keeping drug dealers off the street."

Just two weeks earlier, neighbors had thrown a 70th birthday party for
Ruger, he said. One of her birthday gifts was a triangular purple flag with
a white dragon on it. On Sunday afternoon it hung limply from a flagpole
outside Ruger's window above piles of charred debris on the sidewalk below.

Jessie Royce Hill, who lived in the apartment below Ruger, called her
landlady "a neighborhood institution."

"She was eccentric, a neighborhood character," Hill said as she packed up
her singed and water-soaked belongings to go stay with friends. "She had a
wide circle of adopted family. After she lost her daughter a few years ago,
she sort of adopted friends as surrogate children."

Another neighbor speculated that Ruger met her fate after befriending, or
standing up to, the wrong people.

"She was a nice lady, but she didn't back down from nobody. She spoke her
mind," said Pete Moore, whose family has owned the house next to Ruger's
for two decades.

"I would say she met the wrong person. Some of these people are crack heads
and it's the drugs doing the talking," he said. "Whoever did this had no
concern about the rest of the neighborhood. It would have been somebody
who's lost everything and just decides to take someone else down with them."

Red Cross workers were at the scene Sunday providing food, clothing,
medical attention and psychological counseling to displaced residents. Some
will be housed in local hotels while others may be able to return to their
homes. Yoshi Nakamoto, a resident of the flat adjacent to the victim's,
said he called 911 early Sunday morning.

"I heard a window breaking and I got up and went into the kitchen, and I
could see (Ruger's) bedroom on fire," said Nakamoto.

It took 120 firefighters and 21 pieces of equipment to suppress the blaze,
which was finally controlled shortly before 8 a.m. One firefighter suffered
second-degree burns on his neck. Julie Chao of The Examiner staff and
Examiner news services contributed to this report.

1998 San Francisco Examiner

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski