‘Missing Model’ Suspect Arrested

A photographer arrested after an apparent suicide attempt at his Hollywood home was being questioned by detectives Wednesday night as a “possible suspect” in the disappearance last week of a 27-year-old calendar model, police said.

Lt. Mark Wright of the Hermosa Beach Police Department said investigators now have reason to believe that the missing 27-year-old woman, Linda Sobek, “may be the victim of a homicide.”

Wright said the suspect, whom he declined to identify, was believed to have been with Sobek in his car after they left her automobile in a restaurant parking lot in Torrance, a Los Angeles suburb south of downtown, on the day she disappeared.

The lieutenant did not elaborate further about the suspect’s connection with the missing woman, other than to say the man was considered a suspect before his suicide attempt Wednesday evening.

Wright said a single shot was fired during the suicide attempt. He said the suspect’s attorney and a third person were in the home when the shot was fired. The bullet apparently ricocheted off a wall, causing a minor injury to a sheriff’s deputy outside the home.

Wednesday afternoon, a car belonging to Sobek was found in the restaurant parking lot - one of several developments during a day of frenzied activity in the search for the missing model.

A few hours earlier, friends looking for Sobek in Angeles National Forest turned up a cosmetic case, hair curlers and a receipt from a Manhattan Beach photocopy shop - all of which they believe belong to her.