The month-long search for a missing woman from Hawaii, an election featuring high-stakes contests, a devastating wildfire, renewed interest in a decades old murder case and the thrill of Olympics competition were among the events that made up 2024 in Southern California.
Below, a look at the 10 most-read NBCLA stories of the year.
10. Sean Combs' Holmby Hills mansion raided by feds
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An early morning raid was carried out March 25 at a sprawling mansion owned by Sean Comb in Los Angeles' Holmby Hills neighborhood in connection with a sex-trafficking investigation involving the music industry mogul. Combs was at one of his Miami homes at the time law enforcement officers in protective gear and carrying weapons surrounded the Southern California property.
Combs is accused of using a network of associates and employees to hold elaborately produced sexual performances known as "Freak Offs" involving male sex workers. Prosecutors said he silenced victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings. The 55-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records, who pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, has been seeking his release until his trial in May, but was denied bail a third time last month and remains in a federal jail in Brooklyn.
See every Southern California medal winner for Team USA at the Paris Olympics
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9. Team USA's track and field roster for the 2024 Olympics
After nine days of competition at the the 2024 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials in Oregon, Team USA's celebrated Paris Olympics track and field roster took shape. The roster, including several Southern Californians, features athletes who had already made names for themselves -- like Gabby Thomas, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Sha'Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles -- and others who would go on to carve their names into U.S. Olympics history.
Team USA won 34 medals in track and field at the Paris Olympics.
8. Who will pick Bronny James in the 2024 NBA Draft?
It's not often a college basketball player who averaged 4.8 points per game during his freshman year gets this much attention. But interest was high around where the eldest son of basketball superstar LeBron James would land in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Other teams appeared to be in the mix, but in the end Bronny James moved up the 110 Freeway from the the Galen Center in Exposition Park to Crypto.com Arena in downtown Los Angeles to play alongside his dad as a Laker. The Lakers selected James with the No. 55 overall pick in the 2024 draft. Before he was assigned to the team's G League affiliate South Bay in November, James appeared in four games with the Lakers. James and his father made NBA history Oct. 22 in the team's season opener when they became the first father-son duo to play in the NBA at the same time.
7. Why Erik Menendez's wife is 'disappointed' by re-sentencing decision
Lyle and Erik Menendez were back in the spotlight in 2024 nearly 30 years after they were convicted in the shotgun murders of their parents at the family's Beverly Hills mansion in 1989. First, there was a hit Netflix show. Then, Los Angeles County's top prosecutor announced his office would review the case, recommending re-sentencing.
That surprising development announced by Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón in October drew a response from Erik Menendez's wife Tammi Menendez, who said she was hoping for immediate and direct action.
“Yesterday was a difficult and emotional day,” she wrote on X Oct. 25. “I am Grateful to DA Gascon for his courage to seek re-sentencing for Erik. "I am naturally disappointed he did not go further and act on his own belief that Erik and Lyle have served enough time in prison."
That issue will now be considered by the office of new LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who defeated Gascón in the November election. A judge last week delayed a decision on the matter until January, giving Hochman time to review the case after he was sworn into office Dec. 3.
6. How California's 58 counties voted in the 2020 and 2024 elections
California's 54 Electoral College votes were projected to go to Vice President Kamala Harris shortly after polls closed on election night. But the county-by-county breakdown showed shifting support from the last presidential election in 2020 in several counties, including three in Southern California.
As in past recent elections, there was broad support for the Democratic candidate in more heavily populated counties along the state's coast with inland counties to the east backing the Republican candidate.
Harris won 57 percent of the vote in California. Republican and President-elect Donald Trump garnered 40 percent. In Southern California, Harris claimed 63 percent of the LA County vote to Trump's 34 percent.
But Trump edged Harris in Orange County, a flip from 2020 when Joe Biden won Orange County with 54 percent of the vote. Trump claimed 45 percent in Orange County in that election. Biden also won other counties that the Democratic ticket ceded to Trump this year, including San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
5. The Airport Fire
The 23,000-acre Airport Fire in Orange and Riverside counties was one of three major wildfires burning in Southern California in early September.
The fire, which forced evacuations, started during a week of high fire danger that included heat and strong wind gusts. The fire, which started in eastern Orange County and spread into Riverside County, was contained Oct. 5 after 26 days. An estimated 160 structures were destroyed and 34 were damaged, according to Cal Fire.
The fire raced from Trabuco Canyon to Lake Elsinore in just a matter of hours. The fire also bore down on Santiago Peak, which is home to a series of radio and television broadcast towers, used not only by local media outlets but also federal and local government agencies. The fire appeared to lap right up to the base of some of the towers, but the equipment appeared to escape any serious damage.
4. Rebecca Grossman convicted in hit-and-run deaths of 2 brothers
In February, a Los Angeles County jury found socialite and Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman guilty on all five charges, including murder, in the deaths of two young boys who were struck in a Westlake Village crosswalk by Grossman’s car in 2020. She was convicted on two counts each of murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one felony count of hit-and-run driving in the deaths of 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother, Jacob, who were in a marked crosswalk with their family. Grossman was sentenced in June to 15 years to life in prison.
3. Airline loses luggage with AirTag inside
The trip of a lifetime to Spain soured when an airline passenger lost one of his checked bags, despite having placed an Apple AirTag inside to track his luggage. He was told the bag would be delivered to him later that day, but frustration mounted as Dan Adams and his partner Kurt watched his bag with the AirTag tracker moving away from them.
“It came into Barcelona and then just kept moving out of Barcelona," he said. “I knew at that point that I'd never see that bag again and all the stuff that was inside of it."
2. Malibu earthquake shakes the Los Angeles County coast and beyond
A Sept. 12 earthquake centered in the Malibu area produced shaking in widespread parts of Southern California from the coast to inland communities. The quake, with an initial magnitude of 5.1 that was soon downgraded to 4.7, was followed by more than two dozen aftershocks, including two of magnitude-3.4.
In February, a magnitude-4.6 earthquake centered northwest of Malibu rattled the region. The afternoon quake in the Santa Monica Mountains also had an active aftershock sequence. Southern California had felt shaking from several earthquakes in the weeks prior to the Sept. 12 quake, including a magnitude-5.2 quake located south of Bakersfield.
1. The search for Hannah Kobayashi
Thirty-year-old Hannah Kobayashi was reported missing by family members Nov. 11, three days after she landed at Los Angeles International Airport from Hawaii and missed her connecting flight to New York. A month-long search ensued with local volunteers joining family and friends from Maui in Los Angeles. By the beginning of December, the LAPD classified her disappearance as a voluntary missing persons case after video captured the woman willingly cross the border into Mexico on Nov. 12.
On Dec. 16, the agency said it was notified by Customs Border Protection that Kobayashi presented herself a day earlier for entry into the United States and appeared in good health. The announcement came a week after a family attorney said Kobayashi was safe in Mexico and had contacted her family.
In a statement sent Dec. 16 from Kobayashi's aunt's phone, she said she returned to the U.S. on Sunday and is now prioritizing her wellbeing following a whirlwind of events that included the search effort and the death of her father. Father Ryan Kobayashi was among those from Hawaii who were part of the search. He was found dead Nov. 24 in a parking lot near LAX. Kobayashi's family confirmed his death in a statement and said he died by suicide.
