76-year-old Leam Sovanasy was found stabbed to death in her home on the 1400 block of Peterson Avenue over four years ago and investigators were left with little to go off of with no motive or description of a suspect.    

However, the Long Beach Police Department recently received its largest tips to date in connection with the homicide that occurred January 31, 2009, including a description of the car and a possible suspect.

The sketch of the suspect released Thursday, along a description of a white, early 1990’s Chevrolet Caprice Classic was seen in the area on or around the day of the murder are things detectives hope will help them solve a case that has been active since Sovanasy was discovered with multiple stab wounds in her upper torso and pronounced dead at the scene.

Sovanasy was a mother to seven children, grandmother to 20 and great-grandmother to six. She was a Cambodian immigrant who survived the Khmer Rouge and was a big fan of the Los Angeles Lakers.

On Tuesday, LBPD homicide detectives and Long Beach Search and Rescue representatives acted on the car-description tip received and canvassed the area around the original crime scene with flyers, in hopes of generating new leads within the community for the ongoing investigation.

By Thursday, an outpouring of support from the community had yielded a witness description of the person who had possibly been driving the vehicle in the area around that time. A sketch was generated based on the physical description from the witness and police hope the someone will come forward information about the identity of the person of interest.

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Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Long Beach Police Homicide Detectives at 562-570-7244 or tipping anonymously by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
   

Jason Ruiz covers City Hall and politics for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @JasonRuiz_LB on Twitter.