Third victim slain in camp is named
Authorities on Monday identified a 24-year-old Latino woman who was among five people shot to death at a roadside encampment.
Katherine Verdun was killed in the camp in dense brush beside the Santa Fe Avenue offramp of the 405 Freeway, Los Angeles County coroner spokesman Ed Winter said. Other victims publicly identified were Vanessa Malaepule, a 34-year-old mother of six, and Lorenzo Perez Villacana, 44.
Pending notification of next of kin, authorities were withholding the identities of two victims described as a Middle Eastern man in his 40s and a white man in his 50s.
Long Beach Police Department investigators continued Tuesday to search for clues in the killings first reported by an anonymous caller at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday.
-- Louis Sahagun
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