Slashed Woman’s Kin Plan to Hire Attorney : Investigation: Donna K. Lee will not answer police questions about CityWalk slayings until then, her relatives say.

Relatives of a woman whom investigators want to question in connection with Sunday’s double slaying at Universal CityWalk have informed authorities that they want to retain a lawyer for her before she answers detectives’ questions, sheriff’s deputies said Wednesday.

The woman, Donna K. Lee, 44, was discovered on the Hollywood Freeway with her stomach slashed, about 15 minutes after Doris Carasi, 61, and Sonia Salinas, 29, were found with their throats cut on top of a CityWalk parking structure Sunday evening.

Lee lived with Carasi’s son, Paul--who was Salinas’ ex-boyfriend--at the same North Hollywood apartment house where the two slain women lived together. Lee also worked with Paul Carasi and Salinas in a Bank of America data processing center.

Lee, who was listed in fair condition Wednesday in a Panorama City hospital, has refused to answer investigators’ questions, sheriff’s deputies said.

“Investigators do want to interview Donna Lee, but their latest information is that her family has expressed a desire to seek legal representation prior to any interviews,” Deputy Brian Jones said.

Lee, in an emergency phone call from a freeway phone box, told a police dispatcher she had been stabbed in a robbery. But investigators want to know why a fanny pack belonging to Doris Carasi and a butcher knife were recovered near her sports car by California Highway Patrol officers who found her on the freeway. Deputies have said the knife may have been used in the CityWalk slayings.

At a memorial service for slain peace officers Wednesday in Whittier, Sheriff Sherman Block told reporters “the possibility exists” that Lee’s wounds “could have been self-inflicted,” a spokesman for the sheriff confirmed.

“We’re looking at her very closely,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Robinson said Wednesday. “We’re looking at everybody very closely, but nobody is a suspect yet.”

Paul Carasi, Salinas, their 2-year-old son and Doris Carasi had just finished eating a Mother’s Day dinner in the Country Star Restaurant at CityWalk and were returning to their car on the roof of the parking structure when the two women were slain.

Carasi, 30, who said he was present but unconscious when his mother and ex-girlfriend were killed, has been asked by sheriff’s deputies to take a lie detector test, but no date has been set, Jones said.

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Carasi has told investigators that he cut his thumb and arm when he tried to grab a knife held by an unknown assailant who came at him from behind, sheriff’s deputies said. Carasi said he passed out during the attack and when he regained consciousness he found his mother and Salinas with their throats slashed.

Robinson said Carasi was covered in “quite a bit of blood” when he alerted security guards of the attack and that tests are being performed on his clothing to determine whose blood it was.

Carasi lived with Lee just two doors from an apartment shared by his mother, Salinas and his son. Neighbors have said that Lee moved into the North Hollywood complex this year and that Carasi recently moved into her apartment.

Before moving to North Hollywood, Lee lived in Norwalk with her husband. The couple filed for divorce this year.