Garden Grove : Slain Woman Was to Be Witness at Murder Trial

A prostitute who was found stabbed to death Sept. 27 was to be a key witness at an upcoming rape and murder trial, but police investigating a possible connection doubt that the slaying is related to the case.

Investigators said they were examining whether the death of Kiva Marie Bible, 28, was linked to her planned testimony this week against Donald Joseph Luebbers, 43, of Norwalk.

“That’s one of the possibilities we’re checking into,” said Police Sgt. Phil Mason, who added that it was considered a slim possibility because Luebbers “is still locked up.”

“She was a prostitute who was out working that night, so she could have been picked up by almost anyone,” Mason said. “There’s a world of suspects to choose from.”

A motorist found Miss Bible’s fully clothed body lying in the street near the intersection of Stanford Avenue and Lucille Street. She had been stabbed several times in the chest. A preliminary investigation indicated that she had been killed elsewhere and dumped in the street.

Detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department’s task force investigating a string of 17 murders linked to a suspect dubbed the Southside Slayer have determined that Miss Bible’s murder was unrelated to those killings. Most of the victims in that case have been black women working as prostitutes in the same general areas of South-Central Los Angeles.

Miss Bible was scheduled to be a witness for the prosecution against Luebbers, a self-employed painter who has been held without bail in the Los Angeles County Jail since his arrest at his home last May by Long Beach police.

Authorities allege that he kidnaped and raped Miss Bible in February and murdered Jill Marie Abraham, 21, of Long Beach four years ago.

Miss Bible’s testimony at a June preliminary hearing in Long Beach Municipal Court will be introduced as evidence in Luebbers’ trial, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Dinko Bozanich said.

“It was full-blown testimony . . . with full cross-examination, and I doubt that any further examination would have changed matters,” Bozanich said. “Under the circumstances, it should be just as good.”

Luebbers’ trial was set to begin Oct. 10, Bozanich said.

“She still will testify--she’ll talk out from the grave,” Mason said. “If that’s the reason she was killed, they wasted their time.”