Mystery Continues To Surround Fatal Parking Lot Stabbing In Rolling Hills Estates

ROLLING HILLS ESTATES (CBSLA)   -- Mystery continues to surround the fatal stabbing of a woman attacked inside a parking lot at a mall in Rolling Hills Estates last week.

Police had taken a transient into custody as a person of interest in the attack on Susan Leeds.

KCAL9's Peter Daut reported Wednesday evening that it doesn't appear officials are any closer to naming a suspect.

Officials now say they do not believe the attack on Leeds, 66, was random. Nor do they believe the public is in any danger.

The attack sent shock waves through the quiet enclave.

Nearly a week later, many questions remain -- namely who did it?

Chris Balonek of Bay Cities Crime Watch says the rumor mill has been in overdrive.

"Without a named suspect, without a stated  motive," Balonek says, "is there a killer who is not in custody? Not in a facility, somewhere on the loose?"

The day after the killing, they took a homeless man into custody. He closely remembered a person of interest that was captured on surveillance video.

The man's name was not released but he was a familiar face to store owners in the South Bay.  They described him as dangerous. He was questioned and taken to an unidentified facility where he remains a person of interest.

Investigators said the man could still be charged with murder as more evidence is obtained and processed.

Leeds was a wife and the mother of two grown children. The retired nurse from Palos Verdes, ironically, often came in contact with the homeless.

She would deliver bags of oranges grown on her property to a nearby food pantry where she volunteered.

It's unclear if she knew the man who was taken into custody.

Leeds' son told Daut by phone he is confident his mother's killer will soon be brought to justice.

Detectives are still searching for a murder weapon.

Daut reported that officials are being particularly meticulous with this murder -- it's the first in Rolling Hills Estates in nearly a decade.