Police Seek Man Who Quarreled With Kanan

Los Angeles police said Monday they are searching for a man who allegedly quarreled with Agoura businesswoman Judy Kanan a week before she was gunned down as she tended her horses in Woodland Hills.

Kanan received a series of telephone calls from a woman soon after Kanan refused to allow the man to rent space in the Agoura Hills shopping center owned by Kanan and other family members, Detective Phil Quartararo said. The police do not know the identities of the man and woman, Quartararo said.

Quartararo refused to give details of what was said in the telephone calls, which he said were probably made by the girlfriend of the man being sought by police.

“All I can tell you is she (Kanan) was frightened,” Quartararo said. “Judy was very upset. All her friends had never seen her that upset from receiving phone calls.”

Kanan, 60, the descendant of a pioneering Agoura family, was slain Jan. 29 by a masked man who fired four bullets into her chest and stomach as she arrived at the corral in the 22900 block of Collins Street.

Police are working on a composite drawing of the man being sought based on witness descriptions, Quartararo said. He declined to describe the man as a suspect, but said only that police want to question him in connection with Kanan’s death.