Stolen Vehicle Burned : Car Tied to Kanan Killing Recovered

The vehicle driven by the killer of Judy Kanan, the Agoura-area pioneer who was slain on a Woodland Hills sidewalk, was recovered by Los Angeles police Thursday, authorities said.

The interior of the vehicle was destroyed by a fire that apparently was set 20 minutes after Kanan was shot to death Tuesday afternoon, police said.

Detective Stan Miller said the car, a copper-colored 1982 Pontiac 6000, was found in flames by fire officials slightly less than a mile from the murder scene. But it was not until Thursday that police connected the car with the vehicle seen speeding from the neighborhood where Kanan, 60, was killed, he said.

“This is definitely the car which was driven by the person we’re looking for,” Miller said at a press conference in a Canoga Park towing yard, where the car was being stored Thursday. “A witness who saw the car driving away has identified it as the vehicle. But we still haven’t been able to find a suspect or determine a motive. We’re checking all of Ms. Kanan’s background.”

Miller said the car, which was abandoned near Ventura Boulevard and Ponce Avenue, had been stolen a few days earlier from the lot of Livingston Pontiac in Woodland Hills.

Kanan, whose ancestors were settlers in the Agoura area during the 1860s, was shot four times in the chest and stomach Tuesday afternoon as she prepared to feed horses she boarded at a Collins Street corral. Police were told by witnesses that a person wearing a black ski mask, a yellow raincoat and a light-colored hat climbed into a brown or copper-colored car and sped away after the shooting.

Kanan had showed up at the corral for her regular afternoon visit to feed the horses when she was slain, investigators said. Robbery had previously been ruled out as a motive.

Miller said investigators are focusing on Kanan’s business activities after learning of her involvement in numerous lawsuits and acrimonious disputes.

Kanan was described by family and friends as a feisty, outspoken and determined woman who lived and worked with her sister, Patricia Kanan, at an Agoura Hills shopping center and a chicken-and-rabbit restaurant there named Honey Bunny’s.

The victim’s family is preparing to offer “a sizable reward” for the apprehension of her killer, Miller said.