Autopsy Shows Girl Was Victim of Violence : Crime: Her body was found in neighbor’s closet in Woodland Hills. Police say the suspect acted alone.

Eight-year-old Nicole Parker, a Tarzana girl whose body was found stuffed into a bedroom closet at the home 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 further details pending resolution of the police investigation into Nicole’s death.

Los Angeles police also have been reluctant to release details about the discovery of the girl’s body or the investigation into the man suspected of being her killer--Hooman Ashkan Panah, 22. Panah was arrested Sunday on suspicion of kidnaping and murder.

However, Lt. George Rock said Monday that investigators believe Panah acted alone in the slaying and are not seeking accomplices, despite detectives’ suspicions Sunday that there might have been a second man involved.

Rock declined comment on a motive or on any evidence police will present today to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office linking Panah to the crime. Panah lives directly across the courtyard from Nicole’s father in the Woodland Hills apartment complex where the girl often spent weekends.

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

Nicole, described Monday as vivacious and cheerful, vanished Saturday morning while playing with a softball in the courtyard of the View Pointe Apartments, a gated, 800-unit complex in the 20500 block of Ventura Boulevard.

Police questioned neighbors and even stopped briefly at Panah’s apartment Saturday and spoke to another occupant there, but found nothing 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, also proved fruitless.

But investigators began to suspect Panah, a community college student, after he was arrested Sunday morning in West Hills as he wandered the streets in what witnesses described as a drunk and disheveled state. The man apparently had overdosed on sleeping pills and slashed his wrists, which were stained with blood, and was babbling incoherently, 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.

Late Sunday night, detectives obtained a warrant and searched Panah’s apartment, which a friend said he shared with his mother, and discovered the girl’s body in a closet.

Rock said detectives interviewed Panah--who remained in the jail ward at County-USC Medical Center--at greater length Monday but declined to discuss details.

In Woodland Hills, friends and family members gathered at the apartment of Edward Parker, the victim’s father, on Monday morning, consoling one another and trying to make some sense of the killing. One anonymous woman pulled up in a 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. “We’re just trying to get the pain to go away.”

Stockton said that a trust account to help defray burial costs has been set up in Nicole’s name at First Interstate Bank, 16633 Ventura Blvd., Encino.

Family friends said neither Edward Parker nor his wife, Lori, who are separated, would grant interviews. Nicole lived in Tarzana with her mother and older brother, often spending 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 a close watch on her daughter.

“Every time you hear about a crime where a child is killed or hurt, you say to yourself, ‘Well, the parents should have kept a better eye on that child,’ ” Bonelli said. “That doesn’t apply in this case. Nicole’s mother was very, very strict with her. She wouldn’t let her walk in front of the house without permission.

“Who was to know that she was . . . going to run into trouble with someone who lived across the (courtyard) from her dad?”

Nicole attended Our Lady of Grace School in Encino, a Catholic elementary school where she was remembered fondly by teachers and administrators who were charmed by her friendliness and the ponytail that seemed to be constantly bouncing in the air. Nicole enjoyed watching her brothers play football and rooting for them from the sidelines, they said.

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

A mixed picture emerged Monday, however, about the man suspected to be Nicole’s killer.

An employee at the apartment complex said Panah, known by friends as “Niko,” had lived there for two years and was generally happy and amiable. He had been attending Pierce College in Woodland Hills since 1989, said a spokesman for the Los Angeles Community College District.

But the apartment employee, who declined to be identified, said Panah also drank and had problems with a girlfriend who lived in the West Hills neighborhood where Panah was arrested.

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

Sonya Sharp, 19, who was driving away from her West Hills home Sunday morning when she encountered the bedraggled Panah, said she had to slam on her brakes to avoid hitting him.

“He came right out in front of my car like he wanted me to hit him,” Sharp said. “It scared me so much when I heard about (the arrest). . . . I was looking straight at this guy who probably just murdered someone.”

Chu is a Times staff writer and Glover is a special correspondent. Also contributing were staff writers John Dart and John Glionna and correspondent Thom Mrozek.