2 Killed in Apparent Murder-Suicide : Violence: Divorce papers are thought to have caused a Van Nuys restaurateur to shoot his wife, then himself.

A man who apparently became upset when his wife served him with divorce papers shot and killed the woman in the back office of their small Van Nuys restaurant and then turned the gun on himself, Los Angeles police said Saturday.

Fernando and Maria Vasquez were among four people slain Friday in the San Fernando Valley, police said.

Officer Marcia Brandt said Fernando Vasquez, 41, and his 32-year-old wife lived in Sylmar and operated Marco’s, a small Mexican restaurant and bar, in the 7700 block of Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys.

“Both had been having marital problems for two years,” Brandt said. Maria Vasquez had recently filed for divorce and on Friday “she had gone to the restaurant to serve her husband with divorce papers.”

After arriving at the restaurant at 2:30 p.m. she went into a rear office with her husband to discuss the divorce, police said. About four hours later a concerned relative arrived at the restaurant and broke into the locked office where he found the man and woman dead.

Brandt said investigators found evidence that Fernando Vasquez shot his wife and then himself in the head. The gun was found at the scene.

The restaurant was open but there were no customers during the late afternoon. Employees apparently did not hear the shots from the office because a radio and a television were playing in different locations in the business, police said.

On Saturday, the small restaurant with a satellite dish on its roof and scenes from Mexico painted on its exterior remained closed. Police said the couple left behind four children.

The murder-suicide was followed by two unrelated slayings in the northeast Valley, police said.

At 10:30 p.m., a man was stabbed to death in a dispute during a card game with friends in Sylmar, Lt. Maurice Rubio said.

The 31-year-old victim was stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver during the game in a house in the 15600 block of El Cajon Street, Rubio said. The man’s companions took him to Olive View Medical Center, where he died at 11 p.m. The victim’s name was not released because his relatives had not been notified.

After interviewing the men involved in the card game, police arrested Jorge Morales, 21, of Sylmar on suspicion of murder. He was being held without bail at the Foothill Division Jail, Rubio said.

About the same time as the Sylmar stabbing, patrol officers were called to the 13100 block of Eustace Street in Pacoima after receiving a report that cars were being burglarized on the street.

Rubio said that when the officers arrived they found several cars had been broken into and they spotted the body of Alvin Barber, 38, on the street.

Rubio said Barber, who lived about a block away, had been shot in the chest and there were no suspects in the slaying.

Investigators said they did not know if Barber was shot after stumbling onto a car burglary. Rubio said the area where the killing occurred is known to police as a high gang-activity area, but there were no known links between the slaying and gangs.