Police Likely to Question Blake in Death

May 11 -- The mystery over who killed actor Robert Blake's wife is more than a puzzle for Los Angeles police detectives — it's a matter of fierce speculation for his friends and her family.

In the minds of close friends and relatives of Bonny Lee Bakley who spoke to ABCNEWS, Blake is a killer. But a good friend of Blake's says the former Baretta star could not have done it because Blake once turned down a previous offer to have his wife killed.

"I have no doubt, no doubt at all with every fiber of my body that he killed her, killed my friend," Bakley's friend Judy Howell told ABCNEWS. "He killed his child's mother."

Bakley, 45, was shot to death last Friday as she sat in a car outside a restaurant. Blake, 67, said he had gone back inside to get a gun he had forgotten in the eatery, and found her wounded when he returned. Bakley was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Two Sides to Story

The lead detective on the case said Blake has not been ruled out as a suspect and that it is "very likely" he will be questioned again about his wife's slaying.

"We have certainly not ruled out Mr. Blake," said Capt. Jim Tatreau, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department's robbery-homicide division. "We have not been able to develop enough evidence that, as far as eliminating Mr. Blake, that takes us in another direction."

Bakley's friends and relatives say there are good reasons not to rule him out. Both Howell and Bakley's mother said Blake abused her. They claim the couple's baby daughter Rose was a source of friction. Blake, they said, wanted to keep Bakley away from the baby and would have killed for the child.

"I just said if I were you I would let him have that baby and let him raise it and get away from him," said Marjorie Lois Carlyon, Bakley's mother.

Blake's close friend, John Solari, agrees that Blake is extremely protective of Rose and recalled his friend carrying the baby around the house and singing to her. Blake, Solari told ABCNEWS, was miserable in his marriage to Bakley. Blake was embarrassed and shamed when he discovered she was sending old nude photos of herself to men.