Dorothy Stratten's sister speaks about Playboy Playmate's murder in 1980

Dorothy Stratten's younger sister speaks openly about the legendary Playboy model's murder in 1980 – and reveals that Hugh Hefner collapsed in front of her years later before apologizing for the role he believes he played in the death 20-year-old Playmates had played.

Louise Stratten was with her sister just moments before she was murdered, she told Air Mail.

She had been in the car with Dorothy on August 14, 1980, as the two made their way to the Los Angeles apartment she shared with her jealous, estranged husband, Paul Snider.

The couple had agreed to meet one last time after she officially filed for divorce.

“Then I suddenly changed my mind,” said Louise. “To this day I don’t know why. I remember hearing a small voice inside me telling me to stay back. So I had Dorothy drive me back to filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich's Bel Air home.

Dorothy Stratten, an aspiring actress and 1980 Playmate of the Year, had an affair with the director and divorced Snider to be with him. Louise was 12 years old at the time.

After the car ride, the teenager never saw her sister alive again.

After Dorothy arrived at the apartment, Snider raped her before killing her with a shotgun blast to the face. He ended his own life with the same weapon.

For the two-part Air Mail series, Louise Stratten recalled how years later – after falling in love with and marrying Bogdanovich himself – Playboy publisher Hefner met her at the Playboy Mansion in 2009 and immediately began crying when he saw her .

Hefner had introduced Dorothy to Bogdanovich, who eventually blamed Hefner for the predatory environment that led to the starlet's murder.

Hefner later spread rumors about the film director, claiming he groomed Louise as a teenager.

“He went on to tell me how important Dorothy had been to the 'Playboy family' and that she was ready to become a big star,” Louise told Air Mail.

She revealed that Hefner apologized and said it was “his biggest regret that I shouldn't have banned Paul.” [Snider] from the villa. It was the only thing he had left: the possibility of getting there. He felt like everything had been taken away from him and when he came to the villa with a friend for the Midsummer Night's Dream party, he was turned away.”

Louise Stratten and Bogdanovich married in 1988 and divorced in 2001. The two, she said, are united by their shared grief. He died in 2022.

She dismissed the “grooming” claims, adding that she found them ironic coming from someone “who built his entire empire on turning young women into sexually available 'bunnies' for him and his friends.”

Louise also talked about her life after Bogdanovich's death and how she had to “come to terms with the love, legacy and wreckage he left behind.”