By Peter Prengaman
Los Angeles - The father of two young children found burned beyond recognition in a sport utility vehicle will be booked on suspicion of murder, police said.
Dae Kwon Yun, 54, was found near the automobile with severe burns on his face, hands and legs, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in critical condition on Monday.
Yun and his wife had been separated for about two weeks, and he was living out of his vehicle, authorities said. Court documents show she filed for divorce on March 28.
"Detectives believe the killings were related to the estrangement of Yun and his wife," a police statement released on Monday said.
Police believed the victims were 11-year-old Ashley and 10-year-old Alexander, but positive identification was difficult because the bodies were so severely burned.
The children had planned to go to the movies with their father on Sunday, and their mother expected them back that evening, the police statement said. Witnesses told police they saw Yun arguing in Korean with his daughter outside the family's vehicle in a downtown alley.
The SUV erupted into flames just moments after Yun forced the girl into the vehicle then sat in the front passenger seat himself, police said. As the car burned from the inside, Yun opened the door and rolled out, the statement said.
It was not clear whether Yun had intended to kill himself along with his children and then changed his mind, said police Detective Vic Pietrantoni.
"We need to talk to the father to find out what he was thinking," he said.
Firefighters reached the car and discovered the bodies after extinguishing the fire, said Brian Humphrey, a fire department spokesman.
Yun's wife, Ok Ma Sun, owns a small business near the scene of the blaze, authorities said. She told police that her husband may also have been distraught over a gambling debt.
Court documents show the landlord filed a lawsuit on January 17 claiming that Sun and Yun failed to pay $4 500 in rent on the property between November and January.
Records show the pair did not respond to the complaint.
Yun was arrested in May 2004 for investigation of domestic violence after a woman called emergency officials, said Monterey Park police Captain Eric Kim.
He declined to release the caller's name. Police forwarded the investigation to prosecutors, Kim said, but he did not know the outcome of the case.
Yun was an immigrant from Argentina, and moved to the United States in the late 1980s, the Los Angeles Times reported. He married Ma in 1993. - Sapa-AP