Man to Be Queried in Murder Kills Self : Shooting: The Lakewood resident takes his own life when police show up at his home to question him in the strangulation of a Laguna Hills woman, officials say.

A Lakewood man shot and killed himself early Thursday as officers appeared at his front door to question him about a woman who was strangled and dumped in Laguna Hills.

The 30-year-old man, whose identity had not been released late Thursday pending notification of relatives, was to be questioned because investigators had discovered that he was either renting or in the process of renting a room in his home to the woman, said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson.

Olson said sheriff’s investigators were following up on their homicide investigation and had not classified the Lakewood man as a suspect.

“The guys just knocked on the door and ‘bang’--that was it,” Olson said. “We’re just as surprised as everyone else.”

The body of the woman, whose identity was not revealed Thursday, was discovered about 3 a.m Wednesday by Leisure World security officers behind the Laguna Hills Commercial Center in the 23000 block of Ridge Route Drive. The woman, fully clothed, apparently had been killed elsewhere and her body dumped, Olson said.

An autopsy performed Wednesday determined that she had been strangled.

Investigators have tentatively identified the woman through her fingerprints, but Olson added that her relatives have not yet been notified of her death.

Olson said two detectives assigned the murder investigation went to the 11700 block of East 215th Street in Lakewood at about 3:30 a.m. Thursday to question a man living at a rental house there. When they knocked on the door and received no answer, Olson said, the investigators returned to their car and called the man on their cellular telephone. They told him they wished to speak with him about the woman.

The investigators then returned to the front door and, as they were knocking, heard a single gunshot from within, Olson said. The investigators called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which determined that the man died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Birl Adams said his department was investigating only the man’s death.

Neighbors in Lakewood were perplexed about what had happened. Those interviewed said they knew little about the man or anyone else who had been living at the 40-year-old stucco house he apparently rented.

At the scene late Thursday morning, a Los Angeles County coroner’s van remained parked in the driveway as Orange County sheriff’s investigators sifted through the property for clues. As part of their investigation, a van and a junked car parked on the property were towed to a police impound yard.