4 Escapees Sought in Slaying at Zuma Beach

A Northridge woman was fatally stabbed Tuesday on a Malibu-area beach and four inmates who escaped from a California Youth Authority facility in Camarillo were being sought in the killing, authorities said.

Jacqueline Kirkham, 43, died from several stab wounds to the upper body, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy George Ducoulombier said. She was found in a public restroom at Zuma Beach County Park at about 4 p.m. by passersby and taken to a hospital where she died, the deputy said.

Sheriff’s investigators said the killers were believed to have fled in Kirkham’s sports car after stabbing her in the restroom, about 200 yards from the park’s lifeguard headquarters in the 30050 block of Pacific Coast Highway.

Witnesses saw at least three young men, 15 to 18 years old, fleeing the area in Kirkham’s 1990 red, two-door Nissan 240 SX, with the license plate number 2TDE071, Ducoulombier said.

The Sheriff’s Department was investigating the possibility that the killers were four inmates who escaped from the youth authority’s Ventura School on Sunday, Deputy Rich Erickson said. The youths fled through a two-foot-wide hole they apparently cut in the facility’s fence while working on a morning trash detail, authorities said.

“It’s a possibility, but we are not saying that these are definitely related,” Ducoulombier said.

The inmates, two of whom are convicted murderers, were still at large Tuesday night, CYA spokeswoman Allison Zajac said.

Carlos Ramirez, 21, of Los Angeles and Ismael Solis, 20, of Compton were serving time for murder, authorities said. Osvaldo Pineda, 19, of Los Angeles was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Jose Dubon, 20, of Los Angeles was convicted of exhibiting a weapon, Zajac said.