Charred Body Identified as Tennis Coach
Authorities have confirmed that a charred body found in a burned-out car in the Mojave Desert earlier this month was that of a former tennis coach at a prominent San Fernando Valley private school.
The body of Richard Kinuya, 43, of Studio City, a former coach at Harvard-Westlake School, was identified Wednesday night through dental records, said San Bernardino County Deputy Coroner Monika Padilla.
Authorities are still waiting for toxicology test and microscopic tissue sample results to determine a cause of death, she said.
Those tests can take up to six or eight weeks.
The 1982 Nissan 280Z belonging to Kinuya was found Feb. 4.
It was not known how long the body had been at the remote desert site, about 10 miles north of Baker off California 127.
Kinuya had been the girls’ tennis team coach for four seasons at Harvard-Westlake when he suddenly resigned in January 1997.
He also was adult league coordinator for the Westwood-based Southern California Tennis Assn., the local arm of the United States Tennis Assn., which oversees tennis tournament play in the area, and a teaching pro at the Racquet Centre of Universal City.
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