Long Beach Police Seek New Clues in Slain Woman's Cold-Case

Investigators said they recently received the most significant lead yet in the 2009 killing.

Police fanned out across a Long Beach neighborhood Tuesday hoping to find new clues into the cold-case killing of a 76-year-old woman.

Long Beach homicide detectives and Search and Rescue members planned to canvas the crime scene in the 1400 block of Peterson Avenue. That's where Leam Sovanasy was found dead in her home, stabbed multiple times in the upper torso, on January 31, 2009.

Investigators said they recently received new information on a car seen in the area on or around the day of the killing -- the most significant lead to date. It was described as a four door, white Chevrolet Caprice that may be from the early 1990s, similar to the one pictured below.

A motive for Sovanasy's killing remains unknown, police said.

Sovanasy, a Cambodian immigrant who survived the Khmer Rouge regime, was a mother of seven and a grandmother of 20, police said.

Detectives are asking anyone with information to contact them at (562) 570-7244.

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