Sheriff’s detectives searched Friday for whoever fatally stabbed a 66-year-old woman in a parking structure inside a shopping mall in Rolling Hills Estates.
The attack took place shortly after 12:20 p.m. Thursday at the Promenade shopping mall in the 500 block of Deep Valley Drive, said Deputy Daneglo Robinson of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
The woman now identified by authorities and media reports as Susan Leeds of Rancho Palos Verdes was found inside her SUV parked inside the Promenade’s parking garage with several stab wounds to the chest. It’s unknown if the woman was a victim of a robbery, according to the sheriff’s department.
Leeds was pronounced dead at the scene and there was no other immediate information, Robinson said.
The sheriff’s department released a photo of a person of interest late Thursday night. It’s a picture of a man wearing a red baseball cap and black jacket with a cup of coffee. The photo was taken from security video at the mall. The man could be a suspect or a witness and sheriff’s officials asked the man to come forward so they can talk to him.
This was the first homicide on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in nine years, the Daily Breeze reported. Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Britt Huff told the newspaper the stabbing was “unbelievable.”
Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau detectives asked anyone with any information regarding the death to call them at (323) 890-5500.