Zuma Killing Brings Malibu’s Famed Allure Into Question

The stabbing death of a Northridge woman Tuesday at Zuma Beach was the second major incident of violence at the Malibu area beach in two months, causing some to wonder if the famous coastal region is losing its luster.

In April, a 17-year-old boy was critically injured when about 70 youths turned part of Zuma into a battleground until baton-wielding Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies could quell the violence.

“It certainly is the second incident and even if it is a coincidence, the city and the county need to review security at the beach,” Malibu City Councilwoman Missy Zeitsoff said Wednesday. “I don’t think it can be taken lightly. We need to be sure that as the season approaches for mass public use of the beach there is a safe family atmosphere.”

“I think Malibu is safer than most beaches,” Mayor Walt Keller told the Associated Press. “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.”

But others called Tuesday’s attack that took the life of Jacqueline Kirkham a “freak thing” and downplayed its effect on Malibu’s legendary allure.

“You can have an isolated incident like Tuesday’s stabbing at any time at any place,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Arvie Sherman, whose deputies patrol the Malibu area. “Zuma is not an unsafe place to go.”

Kirkham, 43, was confronted by a group of young men, who stabbed her in the chest and drove off in her sports car, leaving her bleeding to death on the pavement outside a public restroom at Zuma.

Her killers--three youths about 15 to 18 years old--remained at large Wednesday and sheriff’s investigators were exploring the possibility that they were escapees from a California Youth Authority facility in Camarillo.

Some beach-goers Wednesday had not even heard of Kirkham’s death. Those who did shrugged the incident off.

Although detectives said there was no evidence directly linking escapees from the CYA’s Ventura School in Camarillo to Kirkham’s death, they were showing the escapees’ photographs to witnesses on a hunch that they might be involved.

Four Los Angeles-area men, three of whom are convicted killers, escaped from the medium-security facility Sunday night. They were identified as Jose Dubon, 20, Osvaldo Pineda, 19, Carlos Ramirez, 21, and Ismail Solis, 20.

The killers were believed to have fled in Kirkham’s red 1990 Nissan 240 SX bearing the license number 2TDE071, sheriff’s deputies said.

Kirkham moved to Los Angeles from her native Paris, France, in the early 1980s, a male friend who asked not to be identified, said Wednesday. Within the last few years, he said, she was divorced from her husband, who retained custody of their two children.

Since 1988 Kirkham had sold women’s shoes at the Robinson’s department store in Northridge and was engaged to a real estate appraiser, according to the friend.

He said he and Kirkham often drove along Pacific Coast Highway, and frequently stopped at the restrooms near lifeguard station No. 4. Each time, he said, he would escort Kirkham inside to check for people hiding in the stalls.

“I think as far as restrooms are concerned, you just don’t know who is in there,” he said.

But on Tuesday, Kirkham was alone. And the restroom building where she was stabbed is hidden from view by a large concession stand.

Lifeguard Don Olson was one of the first to offer help after Kirkham stumbled outside the restroom and collapsed on the pavement. Although he has administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation to dozens of swimmers in his 19 years as a lifeguard, Tuesday marked the first time he performed it on a murder victim, he said.