Arson Suspected as Five Die in San Marino Fire

Five people were killed and a sixth was severely burned when an explosion and fire, believed to be arson, gutted a two-story home on a quiet San Marino street early Monday.

Officials said the five bodies were so charred that firefighters could not discern the sex of those killed or even determine whether they were children or adults. The officials said three children lived in the spacious, neatly tended house at 2160 Sherwood Road with their parents, Leonardo and Lusje Morita, and a housekeeper. A fourth child, believed to be a cousin, was often at the home.

When firefighters arrived shortly after 5:15 a.m., they found a severely burned Leonardo Morita in the driveway of the home, and he told them: “There are three children inside.”

Morita, 46--said to be an electrical engineer employed by the city of Los Angeles--later was listed in “very critical condition” at County-USC Medical Center.

None of Morita’s children--Rama, 16, Krishna, 14, and Clint, 9--or their cousin, Bianca Morita, 15, were accounted for, nor was his wife, a mortgage broker, said Frank J. Wills, who serves as both police chief and fire chief in the affluent San Gabriel Valley city.

Wills and some neighbors said that Lusje Morita--whose first name is listed in the San Marino phone book as “Lucy”--traveled a lot for work. The family’s housekeeper also was unaccounted for.

“There is just a preponderance of overwhelming evidence that it was arson,” said Wills. “We are calling it a multiple homicide and an arson.”

Wills said the fire started simultaneously in a number of different rooms. He said he knew what caused the fire but refused to provide any details. Officials declined to discuss possible motives for the crime, but Wills said at least one arrest is expected in the near future.

Investigators from the San Marino Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department interviewed several of the Moritas’ relatives and friends at a neighbor’s house, but Wills declined to identify any of them. After an hour of questioning, those being interviewed were escorted from the neighbor’s home and driven away.

At 3:15 p.m., after several hours of picking through the rubble, authorities brought out the first body on a stretcher, wrapped in a white sheet.

A hush fell over the two dozen neighbors who had been milling about on the sidewalk across the street. One person murmured, “Oh, it’s small.” Others speculated that it must be a child’s body.

Chief Wills would not confirm whether it was a child’s body, saying that although “we have a pretty good idea who the victims are,” he would make no formal statement until the bodies had been identified.

According to a spokesman at the medical center’s burn ward, Leonardo Morita suffered second- and third-degree burns over 30% of his body, including his face, arms and legs. He also suffered smoke inhalation and has been placed on a ventilator.

Several neighbors said they were awakened by explosions after 5 a.m.

Nancy Chen, who lives next door to the Moritas, said she was awakened by an explosion, which she thought was “a thunderstorm or an earthquake.” When she looked out the window and saw her neighbor’s house engulfed in flames, she told her husband to call 911.

Her 16-year-old son, Mark, described the initial explosion as “really scary. . . .

“My room faces their house and my window was open,” the youth said. “The noise was really, really loud. I didn’t know what it was and then I saw the reflection of the fire in the window. I just heard the sound of glass breaking everywhere.”

Beryl Panza, who lives across the street, said that after she heard the roar, she came outside and saw San Marino police at the Morita home, “banging on the windows, running around the garden and the driveway, shouting out ‘Get out! Get out!’ ”

Wills said that when firefighters arrived, Leonardo Morita was sprawled outside and they were initially unable to reach him because of a wall of flame across the driveway. “We had to cut down a neighbor’s fence to get to the back of the house to get to him,” Wills said.

Mark Chen said he saw Morita carried to the front lawn of the Chens’ adjoining home, where the firefighters worked on him before he was taken to the hospital.

“It was like one of those war movies,” the teen-ager said. “I didn’t want to see it so I walked away.”

Nancy Chen said the Moritas had lived in the house for about two years. She said she was shocked that anyone would try to do them harm.

“I never heard any shouting at their house,” Chen said. “Everyone was always laughing; they were always cheerful.”

She also said there had been no gang problems in the neighborhood. “I thought we had the safest street in the city. The police station is in walking distance.”

The Moritas were from Indonesia. Property records indicate that several other people used the Sherwood Road address as a mail address for property transactions. However, The Times was unable to reach any of those individuals.

Anita Young, who has known the Moritas since she and Lusje Morita were secretaries together in Indonesia, arrived at the home late Monday afternoon. She said she had called the Moritas at about 7 a.m. Monday.

“Usually they have an answering machine, but it rang and rang. I thought, this is odd, but I never had any bad thoughts,” Young said. Later, she was called by a friend and told about the fire.

Young, a Los Angeles resident, said she believed the Moritas, who were married in Indonesia and had one child there, came to Temple City in 1984 and later moved to San Marino. She termed Lusje Morita a “very busy” self-employed real estate agent.

John Woo, a Los Angeles financial planner, said that although Leonardo Morita worked as an engineer, he hoped to become a financial planner.

“He had a second job with me,” Woo said. Told that the fire was an arson, Woo appeared stunned.

“I don’t think so because that guy is really honest,” Woo said. “He’s nice to everyone.”

Mark Chen described his neighbor and fellow 10th-grader, Rama Morita, as “a sweet guy” who was proficient in both English and Indonesian. The youths drove to San Marino High School together each morning in Chen’s car and played football and basketball in their back yards. The Morita house had a room in the back equipped with a television and video games for the children, according to another young neighbor.

Panza said the only unusual thing she and her husband had noted in the last week was that “the numbers [on the Moritas’ curb] were blacked out.” The blackened smudge was still visible Monday.

San Marino is an upper-income city of 13,000 noted for its fine homes and peaceful surroundings. Nonetheless, the city made front-page headlines about a year ago, when a high school graduation party ended with two teen-agers shot to death by members of an Asian gang.

Police believe the gang members confronted two party-goers at the entrance of a house in the 600 block of Lombardy Place, chased them to the back and opened fire. Slain were Dennis Buan, 18, of South Pasadena, and David Hang, 14, of San Marino. Seven other youths were wounded. It was not known whether the victims were intended targets or bystanders.

The killings prompted a wide-ranging investigation that culminated last August in raids on several San Gabriel Valley homes and numerous arrests.

On Monday, several neighbors said that they were very confident that none of the Morita children had any gang ties.

“I can’t imagine those kids being involved in a gang,” said Patrick Scannell, who lives nearby. “They are just not the type. The one that I recognized that was in high school is a clean-cut looking kid who wears glasses.”

Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.