Police Seek Lone Suspect in String of Area Murders

Seven Los Angeles-area police agencies are investigating whether a string of 12 or 13 murders and 16 to 18 brutal assaults is the work of a lone killer who sneaks into unlocked houses during the night to attack people as they sleep.

Many of the murders have occurred since June in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. Victims have been shot, had their throats slashed or been bludgeoned to death. Some women have been raped and then killed.

“We are concerned there is an individual who is responsible for more than one murder, multiple murders,” said Robert A. Edmonds, Los Angeles County assistant sheriff. He would not elaborate.

Edmonds said the Sheriff’s Department is urging all residents of Los Angeles County “to be particularly careful in securing their homes and pay attention to unusual activities in their neighborhoods.”

The Sheriff’s Department is coordinating the investigation, which also involves the Los Angeles, Arcadia, Glendale, Monrovia, Monterey Park and San Gabriel police departments. Murders bearing some similarities have occurred in each city since March.

“The effort we’re into now is a task force configuration,” said a high-ranking police official who spoke on condition that he not be identified. “The commonality between these . . . cases leads us to believe that it’s maybe one suspect.”

The official said that between 28 and 30 cases are being examined. Twelve or 13, he said, are homicides. The rest involve assaults.

Neither the official nor detectives associated directly with the case would specify which murders were being investigated as part of a possible series.

Authorities said there are dissimilarities between the weapons and methods used in many of the attacks, as well as differences in descriptions of suspects made by survivors and witnesses. However, the frequency of the murders and the fact that entry was gained in each case through unlocked doors and windows leads some officials to believe that there may be a pattern.

Whether this view is bolstered by the existence of any physical evidence could not be learned.

The most recent attack came early Tuesday morning when an intruder awakened a Northridge man and his wife and shot both in the head with a small-caliber pistol before escaping as the wounded man gave chase.

The couple, Christopher and Virginia Petersen, were asleep when the assailant apparently entered the house through an unlocked back door. They were shot as they lay in bed.

Investigators said burglary was a probable motive in the break-in but noted that there was no indication that the house had been ransacked or that any items had been stolen.

Los Angeles police Detective Lewis Bobbitt said the investigation was being transferred to police headquarters downtown because, “It may fit the patterns of other crimes.” He declined to be more specific.

The Petersens were released from the hospital Wednesday, and police called their escape from major injury after being shot at close range “amazing.”

The couple provided authorities with only a sketchy description of their assailant: a man 6 feet tall, weighing about 150 pounds and with curly hair.

Thai Immigrant’s Death

But the description was consistent with one released earlier this week by Los Angeles police in connection with the July 20 shooting death in Sun Valley of Thai immigrant Chainarong Khovanath. Khovanath was killed as he lay sleeping; his wife and their 8-year-old son were beaten. About $30,000 in jewels and cash were stolen by the suspect, who was seen driving away in a maroon-colored Pontiac Grand Prix with a damaged right fender.

The Khovanaths’ attacker was described as 25 to 30 years old, 6 feet tall, 160 pounds, with curly brown hair. That description also matches one released by Monterey Park police of the suspect sought in the killing of four people and the beating or rape of four women in June and July.

Other cases being looked at are:

- Dayle Okazaki, 34, shot to death March 17 in his Rosemead apartment.

- Mabel Bell, 84, beaten to death June 2 in her Monrovia home. Her roommate, Florence Lang, 81, was badly beaten.

- Patty Elaine Higgins, 31, whose throat was slashed June 28 in her Arcadia home. She died in the attack.

- Mary Cannon, 75, another Arcadia resident who died June 28 in her home. Her throat was also slashed.

- A 16-year-old girl bludgeoned in the head July 5 while asleep in her Sierra Madre home. She survived.

- Maxson Kneiding, 68, and his wife, Lela Ellen, 66, both shot to death July 20 in their Glendale home.

Community Meetings

Police in at least three cities--Glendale, Monterey Park and Arcadia--have held community meetings in recent weeks to assure anxious residents and explain methods to improve home security. The most recent meeting took place Wednesday night at a junior high school in Arcadia.

Neal Johnson, acting Arcadia police chief, told a gathering of more than 350 people that an interdepartmental “task force of 25 officers is working together” on solving the attacks.

Johnson said that he has received 30 calls a day from concerned citizens and, as a result, has beefed up his night police patrols from five cars to eight. He said he also has hired five additional personnel to work in crime prevention programs.

Times staff writers Marc Igler, Carol McGraw, Thomas Omestad, Joel Sappell and Boris Yaro contributed to this article.