3 Boys Reportedly Resemble Sketches of Slaying Suspects

Three teen-age boys were being questioned Thursday in New Mexico about the stabbing death of a woman on a Malibu beach because they resemble sketches of the slaying suspects, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.

Sheriff’s homicide detectives were sent to Santa Fe to question the youths, who were arrested on unrelated burglary charges, as “possible suspects” in the slaying “because New Mexico State Police matched them with composites that we did,” Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Mary Landreth said.

The three boys--ages 15, 16 and 17--were arrested Wednesday after authorities found the dead woman’s car wrecked on a state road, New Mexico State Police Maj. Frank Taylor said. Witnesses told police that three boys matching descriptions of the youths tried to hitch a ride from the scene shortly after the accident, Taylor said.

The wrecked car belonged to Jacqueline Kirkham, 43, of Northridge, whose body was found in a Zuma Beach restroom May 28. Sheriff’s investigators said three youths stabbed Kirkham repeatedly in the chest and drove off in her red Nissan 240 SX.

Sheriff’s investigators also are showing photographs of the New Mexico teen-agers to witnesses in the Zuma Beach slaying, Landreth said.

Kirkham’s car had been abandoned after it apparently flipped over several times, smashing the roof and the driver’s side, Taylor said. The two older boys were arrested Wednesday afternoon after police received information from the father of one of the youths that appeared to link them to the car, Taylor said.

The two were booked Thursday at the Santa Fe Detention Center in the unrelated burglary of a bar near their hometown of Pojoaque, five miles from the accident scene.

The 15-year-old was arrested in Santa Fe later that night. The three were also being held for probation violations, said Taylor, who declined to elaborate because the boys are juveniles.

The three New Mexico youths had been enrolled at Pojoaque Valley High School, where two were juniors and the third a sophomore, school officials said.

Sheriff’s homicide detectives initially sought four escapees from the California Youth Authority facility in Camarillo in the slaying but, although the four are still at large, they are no longer being linked to the crime, Landreth said.