Police Look For Link In Slayings Of B.C. Man, Walla Walla Woman

LAS VEGAS - Police want to know whether there is any connection between the deaths of a Canadian here and a Washington woman in Southern California, both within two weeks after they played poker together at a Las Vegas casino.

Donald Idiens of Vancouver Island, B.C., was killed Dec. 8 by a blow to the head after he abruptly left a poker game at the Mirage Hotel. His body was found across the Strip on a 17th-floor stairwell of the Imperial Palace Hotel.

On Dec. 18, the body of Dannie Kim, 32, of Walla Walla was found outside the Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood, Calif. She had been shot five times in the chest and was found in a burning car.

Idiens and Kim were playing at the same poker table the night the Canadian was killed, according to Phil Barber, a longtime friend of Idiens.

"There is quite a bit of talk about this," Barber told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Two people playing in the same room, at the same time, right here. Both dead. Both murdered. We're wondering if there's some connection."

Barber said the killings have upset the poker-playing regulars at some of the casinos. He said he knew one poker player who had gone out and purchased a gun for protection.

Idiens lost $800 at the poker table when he left the night he was killed. Barber said he may have had a few thousand dollars in his possession, but no money was found on his body.

Las Vegas Metro Police homicide Detective Ken Hefner said he hadn't heard about Kim's slaying but would look into it.

Los Angeles police said they would be talking to Las Vegas police about the Idiens slaying.

Police sources say there is a possibility of a Canadian connection to the slaying of Idiens, a successful building contractor.