Local News in Brief : Westminster : 4 Members of a Family Held as Murder Suspects

Four members of a Westminster family are in jail on suspicion of kidnaping and killing a man whose body was found floating in a Long Beach canal, Santa Ana police said Wednesday.

The four were arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of killing Quynh Duy Nguyen, 50, of Villa Park, police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said. Witnesses told police they saw a woman arrive at the Pueblo Motel at 1507 N. Harbor Blvd. in Santa Ana at about 7:30 p.m. and go into a motel room. Soon after, they said, a man arrived and went into the room. Then two men with handguns and wearing ski masks went in and left carrying the victim, apparently unconscious, police said.

Nguyen’s body was found in a canal in the Naples area of Long Beach about three hours later, Thomas said. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office listed the cause of death as strangulation.

Thomas said Nguyen was killed for revenge, but she declined to elaborate, saying it might jeopardize the investigation.

The four suspects were arrested in Westminster after witnesses gave police a license number.

In Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail each are Hoan Ngoc Lai, 47, his wife Xuan Kim Lai, 37, and her brother, Peter Ha Nguyen, 33. The fourth suspect, a 17-year-old identified by police as a Lai family member, is in custody at Orange County Juvenile Hall. The three adults are scheduled for a preliminary hearing today. Thomas said the teen-ager would go before a Juvenile Court judge.