Local News in Brief : Apartment Manager Killed; Tenant Arrested

The manager of a Panorama City apartment building was found slain shortly after she moved in and investigators arrested a tenant who had been helping her, police said Tuesday.

Police said the body of Lynia Kokes, 28, was found by her husband, Alex, on the floor of their apartment in the 9500 block of Van Nuys Boulevard at 8 p.m. Monday. The woman, who was just starting a job as a live-in manager at the apartment building, had been beaten and stabbed, police said. Her husband discovered her near the front door of their apartment when he returned from work.

Detective Dan Riehl said police questioned residents of the building and learned that a tenant, Mark Alan Bradford, 25, had been seen helping Kokes move her belongings into the apartment earlier in the day.

“She was going to be the new manager and he wanted to be friendly,” Riehl said.

At least two residents heard a woman screaming and a fight from the area of the Kokes’ apartment shortly after 5 p.m., Riehl said. He said no one called police to report the disturbance.

Riehl said Bradford was arrested on suspicion of murder at his apartment, four doors from the Kokes’ apartment, and was being held at the Van Nuys Jail without bail. He said the motive for the death had not been determined.

Police said the victim and her husband had moved from Hollywood.