Kidnaped Girl, 8, Died of Trauma : Crime: The body was found in the bedroom closet of a man arrested on suspicion of murder, officials say. Family and friends remember the vivacious and cheerful child.

Eight-year-old Nicole Parker, the Tarzana girl whose body was found stuffed into the bedroom closet of her father’s neighbor, died of traumatic injuries but no weapon was used in her death, authorities said Monday.

An autopsy confirmed that the girl died violently, but Los Angeles County coroner’s officials declined to release details pending resolution of the police investigation into the girl’s death.

Los Angeles police also have been reluctant to release details about the discovery of the girl’s body and the investigation of the man they believe killed her--Haroom Ashkan Panah, 22, who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of kidnaping and murder and remained in custody Monday.

Panah lives across the courtyard from Nicole’s father in a Woodland Hills apartment complex where the girl often spent weekends.

Lt. George Rock said investigators believe Panah acted alone in the slaying and are not seeking accomplices, despite detectives’ suspicions Sunday that Panah might have had one.

Rock declined comment on a motive, or on the evidence police will present today to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

“The case is still ongoing,” he said. “I’m not going to jeopardize the case by . . . confirming any rumors.”

Nicole, described as vivacious and cheerful, vanished Saturday morning while playing with a ball in the courtyard of View Pointe Apartments, a gated, upscale, 800-unit complex in the 20500 block of Ventura Boulevard. Police questioned neighbors and stopped briefly at Panah’s apartment Saturday, speaking to another occupant, but found neither the girl nor anything suspicious, Rock said.

“There was no evidence to believe the girl was in the apartment at that time,” he said.

Further searches by police and civilian volunteers, who mounted a massive weekend hunt around the complex and in the nearby Santa Monica Mountains, were equally fruitless.

Investigators began to suspect Panah after he was arrested Sunday morning in West Hills while wandering the streets in what witnesses described as a drunken and disheveled state.

He had apparently overdosed on sleeping pills and slashed his wrists, which were stained with dried blood, and was talking gibberish, witnesses said.

“He looked like he was drunk or on drugs or something,” said Helen Saiz, whose husband dialed 911 when Panah did not respond coherently to questions.

Panah told officers that he had tried to kill himself because he was distraught over Nicole’s disappearance, Rock said.

“He made certain incriminating statements. He indicated that the body might be found in the rugged terrain off of Mulholland Drive,” which helped trigger the sweep through the mountains, Rock said. “We didn’t have the idea that he was the primary suspect until after his arrest and his statements.”

Late Sunday night, detectives secured a search warrant for Panah’s apartment, which he shared with his parents, according to a friend. They discovered the girl’s body in his closet.

Panah was hospitalized in the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center. Rock said detectives interviewed him there Monday but declined to discuss details.

Meanwhile, in Woodland Hills, friends and family members congregated at the apartment of Nicole’s father, Edward Parker, trying to make sense of the killing and console one another.

A woman pulled up in her car, handed a bouquet of flowers to a grieving family member and said: “I don’t know your family--these are just from a mother.”

“It feels like a bad dream,” said a dazed Ken Stockton of Calabasas, who identified himself as Nicole’s uncle and godfather.

Nicole lived in Tarzana with her mother, Lori Parker, and older brother. She often spent weekends with her father and two other brothers, Chad and Travis, in Woodland Hills.

Carol Bonelli, a teacher at Serrania Avenue School in Woodland Hills and a friend of Nicole’s parents, said Lori Parker kept close watch on her daughter.

“Nicole’s mother was very, very strict with her. She wouldn’t let her walk in front of the house without permission,” Bonelli said. “Who was to know that she was . . . going to run into trouble with someone who lived across the hallway from her dad?”

Nicole attended Our Lady of Grace School in Encino, a Catholic elementary school.

“She loved pretending she was a cheerleader, and she was good at it too,” said teacher Margaret Kidodeaux.

Panah, known by friends as Niko, had lived in the apartment complex for two years and was generally happy and amiable, according to an employee at the complex. Panah was enrolled at Pierce College, where he had attended classes since 1989, a community college official said. But Panah also drank and had problems with his girlfriend, who lived in the West Hills neighborhood where Panah was arrested, said the employee, who declined to be identified.

“I used to drink with him,” the man said. “Apparently he just finally flipped out.”

Contributing were Times staff writers John Dart and John Glionna and special correspondent Thom Mrozek.