Police Release No Details on Murder Probe

Inglewood police said Friday they are chasing “very positive leads” in the death of a woman found shot in a burning car, as detectives in Las Vegas discounted a report her death could be linked to a poker game at a hotel.

Dannie Kim, 32, had been stuffed into the trunk of a 1994 Chrysler LeBaron that was set afire early on the morning of Dec. 17 in the 500 block of South Osage Avenue, Sgt. Michael McBride said.

When firefighters doused the blaze and opened the trunk, they discovered Kim, still alive, though she was severely burned and had been shot five times in the chest.

Kim, reportedly of Walla Walla, Wash., died Dec. 22 of her injuries, McBride said.

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“We’re not commenting about where we are with the investigation or where it’s going or what it’s about,” McBride said Friday. “We’re being very tight-lipped about it. It’s a very sensitive investigation. But we do have some very positive leads we are pursuing.”

Meanwhile, citing a story in a Las Vegas newspaper, Associated Press reported Friday that Kim was playing poker Dec. 8 at a table at the Mirage Hotel with a Canadian man who was found dead later that night.

Donald Idiens of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, was killed Dec. 8 by a blow to the head. He had abruptly left the poker game at the Mirage, leaving $800 on the table, the wire service said. His body was found across the Strip in a 17th-floor stairwell of the Imperial Palace Hotel, AP said.

A longtime friend of Idiens, quoted in the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, noted that Kim was found in the burning car days after Idiens was killed.

“We’re wondering if there’s some connection,” the friend, Phil Barber, told the paper, according to AP.

Reached Friday by telephone, Las Vegas homicide Lt. William Peterson said: “I’ve read that story, and talked to detectives at Inglewood, and . . . I don’t believe our homicide is connected to theirs in any way.”