New Charge in CityWalk Murders : Crime: Girlfriend of suspect to be arraigned, but he is released. Police say the man remains a suspect in the two slayings.

Prosecutors filed murder charges Monday against a North Hollywood woman in a Mother’s Day double killing at Universal CityWalk, but her boyfriend was released. Authorities said they lacked evidence to charge him although they still consider him a suspect.

Although Paul Carasi was turned loose, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators said they are awaiting results of lab tests that may implicate him in the killing of his mother and former girlfriend.

Carasi’s current girlfriend, Donna Kay Lee, 44, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Beverly Hills Municipal Court on two counts of murder in the killings of Doris Carasi, 61, and Sonia Salinas, 29, who were discovered with their throats cut atop a parking garage at the Universal City theme park.

Lee also faces special-circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders. That could make her subject to the death penalty if she is convicted.

After Carasi was let go, Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Bailey emphasized that he is “still considered a suspect. He’s being released pending results of crime lab analysis.”

But Bailey said it may be six weeks before investigators receive the results of DNA and other forensic tests performed on evidence, including on a bloody butcher knife found near Lee’s car on the night of the killings that investigators believe may be the murder weapon.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Sam Muniz said murder charges were filed against Lee because there was enough physical evidence to show that she participated in the murders and because she made more inconsistent statements than Carasi.

Muniz said that investigators have a “suspicion” as to who did the actual knifing but refused to elaborate.

Carasi, who said he also was attacked and was unconscious when his mother and Salinas were killed, was arrested on suspicion of murder Thursday evening after he failed a polygraph test. Lee was arrested the next day at a Panorama City hospital where she was treated for stab wounds to her abdomen.

Lee phoned for help from a Hollywood Freeway call box about 15 minutes after the killings and about four miles from where the women were discovered, saying she had been stabbed by a robber on the freeway.

But deputies say they now believe that Lee stopped there to dump some of the victims’ property and was forced to call for help because she accidentally locked herself out of her car. Sheriff Sherman Block has speculated that her wounds were self-inflicted.

Investigators discovered a bloody butcher knife, bloody clothing, a purse belonging to Salinas and fanny packs belonging to Doris and Paul Carasi near Lee’s sports car.

Lee, who initially told investigators that she was attacked at the freeway call box, later said she was attacked at CityWalk, sheriff’s deputies said. “She hasn’t given specific details as to where she was stabbed or by whom,” Deputy Barbara McWilliams said. “She wasn’t very cooperative.”

After her picture was shown in TV news reports, half a dozen witnesses volunteered that they saw Lee at CityWalk the evening of the killings, McWilliams said.

Investigators also said they have learned of a running dispute between Paul and Doris Carasi. Neighbors have told reporters that Doris Carasi had fought with Lee several weeks before the stabbings.

Paul Carasi shared an apartment with Lee two doors from an apartment where his mother and Salinas lived together, along with Salinas’ 2-year-old son by Carasi. And Paul Carasi, Lee and Salinas worked together at a Bank of America data processing facility in Los Angeles.

Carasi initially appeared reluctant to leave the Men’s Central Jail Downtown when he was released shortly before 6:25 p.m., peeking out at dozens of reporters, photographers and TV camera crews awaiting him.

Emerging, he pleaded: “Could you guys please give me a break?” as he worked his way through the crowd.

He was asked about the hand injuries he said he received from the assailant in the Mother’s Day stabbings. “Hands are fine,” Carasi replied, displaying hands that showed no visible signs of injury.

Then he sprinted down the street, chased by camera crews, and hopped into a waiting television news van.

Times staff writers Nicholas Riccardi and Ann W. O’Neill contributed to this story.