Woman, 43, Stabbed to Death in Daylight Attack at Beach

A beach-goer was stabbed to death in a daylight attack at Malibu’s Zuma Beach, near the homes of Cher and Johnny Carson, authorities said Wednesday.

Jacqueline Kirkham, 43, died from several stab wounds to the upper body, and youths believed responsible for the Tuesday slaying fled in her car, said Deputy George Ducoulombier of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“I think Malibu is safer than most beaches,” said Mayor Walt Keller. “We have gangbangers all the way from Topanga to Zuma. It’s an L.A. problem becoming a Malibu problem. It’s a sign of the times, I guess.”

In April, rampaging youths on Zuma Beach stabbed a beach-goer with a screwdriver.

Zuma Beach is the county’s largest where up to 100,000 people congregate on hot summer days. Kirkham was from Northridge.

Authorities were searching for four inmates who escaped from a California Youth Authority facility in Camarillo in connection with the killing. But Ducoulombier said, “They have not been definitely linked to it yet.

“Homicide investigators are showing photographs of the inmates to people on the beach who may have been witnesses,” the deputy said.

Two of the inmates are convicted killers.

The attackers fled in Kirkham’s sports car after stabbing her in the public restroom near lifeguard station No. 4, about 200 yards from the lifeguard headquarters on Pacific Coast Highway, investigators said.

Lifeguard Lt. Jim Richards described the stabbing as “kind of an isolated incident” and not a sign that the beach was particularly dangerous.

“The other stabbing was a gang-related thing,” he said. “People just have to be aware of where they are.”

Witnesses saw three males, 15 to 18 years old, fleeing the area.

Detectives were investigating the possibility that some of the inmates who escaped Sunday by cutting through a chain-link fence were involved in the stabbing.

The four escaped from Ventura School through a two-foot-wide hole they apparently cut in the fence Sunday morning while working on a trash detail.

Allison Zajac, a spokeswoman for the California Youth Authority, said the inmates were still at large.

Carlos Ramirez, 21, of Los Angeles and Ismael Solis, 20, of Compton were sentenced for murder, authorities said. Osvaldo Pineda, 19, of Los Angeles was serving time for a voluntary manslaughter conviction, and Jose Dubon, 20, of Los Angeles was convicted of exhibiting a weapon, Zajac said.