Police Quiz a Suspect In Irvine Killings

A Temple City man was questioned Thursday in the slaying of an Irvine piano teacher and an award-winning pianist found stabbed to death in their upscale condominium this week.

Guy Thomas Whitney, 60, the instructor, and Lawrence Wong, 51, the pianist, were attacked with a knife about 9:30 p.m. Monday in their Solana home overlooking the Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course. Discovery of their bodies Tuesday shocked a community where violence is rare.

Friends told detectives that Whitney had complained that a former boyfriend, Vincent Choy Cheung, 36, had been stalking him in recent weeks, police said. Cheung, who described himself as a student and actor, was arrested Thursday on an outstanding warrant and questioned about the deaths, said Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato.

“At this time, Mr. Cheung remains a suspect only and has not been charged with the murders,” said Allevato, adding that investigators also planned to question others who knew the slain men.

But authorities on Thursday were focusing on Cheung. Police searched his home and car for evidence linking him to the murders, Allevato said. Police are also conducting tests on kitchen knives found at the murder scene to determine if they were used in the attack.

Friends and colleagues mourned the deaths of the musicians, who police said had begun living together about five weeks ago, when Wong moved to Orange County.

Whitney recently opened a conservatory in Irvine after years of teaching voice and music. He had been active in Orange County’s gay and lesbian community and volunteered with an HIV prevention program. He also served as a caregiver for an elderly Orange County woman.

“He called her his California mom,” said a friend, Althea Ingram. “He had a lot of friends. He knew a lot of people.”

Wong won the International Bach Competition and performed on many television programs, including “The Merv Griffin Show” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” He was also a member of a North Hollywood theater company, Interact Theatre, where he was musical director for two recent productions.

He was one of the “most talented, sweetest people I have ever known,” said Alan Brooks, an actor at Interact. “Amid our shock and grief, there is our thankfulness that we had such a man in our lives.”

Wong performed with such notable opera stars as Jose Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa. A Times music reviewer last fall described Wong, who played Chopin’s dramatic “Ocean” etude during a comedy show, as a “world-class accompanist.” Another review praised Wong as “authoritative, accomplished, sympathetic.”

An autopsy showed that Whitney and Wong struggled with their attacker, who stabbed them numerous times during a vicious assault, Allevato said.

Police at first thought the men might have been the victims of a murder-suicide after officers found their condominium filled with gas. But detectives now believe a stove might have been switched on by the killer.

“The gas was turned on, which could indicate that it was possibly a suicide or intended to look like a suicide,” Allevato said. “Or maybe [the killer] . . . intended to blow the house up and destroy all the evidence.”

Police aren’t sure how the killer entered the residence.

“We didn’t see any signs of a break-in or a forced entry, but that doesn’t mean that they let him in,” Allevato said. “There could have been an unlocked door.”