Mystery Clouds Arson Case

Why anyone wanted to kill 16-year-old Tulsi Kumar, her brother, mother and grandmother remained a mystery to police and relatives Monday.

With arson investigators, computer experts and homicide detectives trying to reconstruct the events that unfolded before Saturday night’s blaze at the family’s Hollywood Hills home, authorities said there won’t be a quick resolution to the crime.

“It’s going to a be a while,” LAPD Capt. Jim Tatreau said. “It’s a real whodunit.”

Harish “Harry” Kumar told detectives who interviewed him all day Sunday that he arrived home at 11:15 p.m. Saturday to find his house engulfed in flames.

Relatives said he remains dazed by the loss of wife Gita, mother Sitaben Patel, son Paras and daughter Tulsi. Nor can they think of any enemies the couple or their children might have had, relatives said.

“He just keeps saying, ‘I’ve lost everything,’” said Chandu Patel, a relative who comforted Kumar at another relative’s house near the charred Lakeridge Drive home.

Tatreau said there are no suspects, and no one has been ruled out. He said Kumar has been cooperative, but he would not elaborate.

Kumar’s cousin, Danny Patel, said police gave Kumar a lie detector test, but the LAPD would not confirm that.

Officials from the coroner’s office said dental records will be required to identify the bodies. The cause of the deaths has not yet been determined.

Bob Collis, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman, said that investigators found traces of a flammable liquid in more than one location in the house and that the blaze began in two of the bedrooms.

An LAPD computer expert, according to sources, examined computers in the home. B.N. Patel, another relative, said Tulsi Kumar was communicating with a friend online before the tragedy. Detectives also are examining financial records.

Chandu Patel said he last saw Harish Kumar when Kumar dropped him off at 10:30 p.m. at the Universal City Inn, one of the family’s three motels.

He said Kumar then dropped off another man nearby before heading home.

At a memorial at Reseda High School, where Tulsi was a junior and part of the school’s magnet science academy, students prayed, cried and shared stories about the girl they described as fun-loving and humble. Robert Kladifko said she was “a very intelligent student” who was on her way “to becoming a doctor or engineer or something successful. She was well-liked by students and staff.”

A Hindu priest said a prayer before the memorial, and students gathered at a makeshift altar to leave flowers.

As about a dozen students wearing black read poems or recounted experiences with Tulsi, sobs rose among relatives outside the school gate. The memorial was a student-only event.

Sagar Kumar, a cousin, said he had seen 18-year-old Paras Kumar and his sister “every day since they were born.”

“We were like the Brady Bunch. I would call his parents Mom and Dad, and he would do the same to my parents.”

Tragedy had struck the Kumars before, said Kirrit Bhikha, the husband of Gita Kumar’s youngest sister. He said more than a decade ago, their eldest son was struck and killed by a car in Texas, where the family lived for many years.

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Times staff writers Manuel Gamiz Jr. and Andrew Blankstein contributed to this story.