DOWNTOWN : $40,000 Reward in UCLA Grad’s Slaying
The City Council and two downtown businesses have offered a $40,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the fatal stabbing of a recent graduate from UCLA.
Kalpesh Vardhan, 23, of Walnut was attacked Aug. 19 as he was leaving his car on the sixth floor of a parking garage at 808 S. Olive St., said Detective Jose Reyes of the Central Division. Investigators believe Vardhan was stabbed shortly after 9 a.m., but his body was not discovered until 4 p.m.
Shortly after 9 a.m., a witness saw a brown-and-orange, early to mid-’70s Ford sedan containing two men near the sixth-floor exit ramp where Vardhan’s body was found, Reyes said. The car left the garage a few minutes later, the witness said.
Investigators believe robbery was the motive in the stabbing. Vardhan’s wallet was missing when his body was discovered.
Vardhan joined the Los Angeles office of Andersen Consulting, an engineering firm, on June 22.
The City Council approved $25,000 of the reward. Andersen Consulting and the garage owners, Maguire Thomas Partners, have offered an additional $15,000. Anyone with information about Vardhan’s death is asked to call Central Division homicide detectives at (213) 485-2671.
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