Man Accused of Killing Wife, Child

A Torrance man was charged Wednesday with killing his wife and 4-year-old daughter, whose bodies were found bound together and floating beneath a boat in the Los Angeles Harbor.

Kazumi Taga, 50, was arrested Monday at his condominium on suspicion of killing Yuriko Taga, 38, and daughter Michelle on Sept. 7., the day they disappeared, officials said.

Their clothed bodies, bound together by a diver’s weight belt, were found two weeks later by a diver cleaning the hull of the Sea Queen II in Fish Harbor, off of Terminal Island.

Police said the mother and daughter had been killed before they were dropped in the water, but the coroner’s office has not determined how they died. The office is still awaiting dental records to confirm the victims’ identities, Lt. David Smith said.

Taga was ordered held without bail until his Oct. 18 arraignment.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said police had been in contact with Taga since his family’s disappearance.

Sandi Gibbons said the district attorney’s office may request the death penalty in the case but would not decide until after Taga’s preliminary hearing.

“We filed two counts of murder with the special circumstance of multiple murders,” she said.