Weapons Found in Car of Mom, Son Suspects

NEW YORK —  Police on Friday unveiled a trove of guns, women’s wigs and other items found in a luxury car belonging to a suspected mother-son crime team being questioned in the disappearance of a New York socialite and the shooting death of a Granada Hills man.

The items include a box of .22-caliber cartridges, the type of ammunition used to kill David Kazdin, 63, of Granada Hills, whose body was found in a trash bin near Los Angeles International Airport in March.

They were found in a green 1997 Lincoln Continental belonging to Kenneth Kimes, 23, and his mother, Sante Kimes, 63, who first surfaced this week as suspects in the disappearance of a wealthy and prominent New York widow, Irene Silverman, 82. Since then, other law enforcement agencies, from Los Angeles to the Bahamas, have said they wanted to question the Kimeses about other crimes.

New York police sources said a ledger also was recovered, containing Silverman’s name along with the names of three people who are either missing or dead. These included Kazdin, the Associated Press reported, quoting unnamed police sources.

The Kimeses were being held without bail Friday at Riker’s Island Jail on a communications fraud warrant out of Utah. They are accused of using a bogus check to buy a luxury car. Both are fighting extradition to Utah, said Matthew Weissman, attorney for Kenneth Kimes, 23. Their next court date is Aug. 6.

Police in Los Angeles said that Kazdin, who ran a medical-record photocopying business from his home, met Sante Kimes more than 20 years ago when they were introduced in Las Vegas. Detectives said they are investigating the possibility that Sante Kimes may be responsible for a fraudulent bank loan taken out in January in Kazdin’s name.

LAPD detectives who are in New York investigating Kazdin’s death could not be reached for comment.

New York police are questioning the mother and son about Silverman, who was last seen Sunday morning by an employee at her turn-of-the century Manhattan mansion, where Kenneth Kimes rented a $6,000-a-month apartment on June 14.

The Kimeses were arrested Sunday at the New York Hilton. Sante Kimes was found with Silverman’s passport, some of her checks and her bank account information, according to New York City newspapers.

Investigators continue to search for Silverman. Detectives have combed Central Park, about half a block from Silverman’s house, but have been unsuccessful in their search. Coroner’s officials are also examining stains found outside her home to determine if they are Silverman’s blood, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Marilyn Mode.

At a news conference Friday, the green Lincoln town car used by Sante and Kenneth Kimes was displayed in front of police headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

NYPD Police Commissioner Howard Safir listed some of the items found in the auto: a loaded 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol, women’s wigs of various colors, a box of .22-caliber cartridges, ear plugs, $30,000 in cash, a portable two-way radio and blank Social Security cards.

Kazdin, whose body was found March 14 near LAX, was killed with a .22-caliber weapon.

Safir said the gun has been traced to a person in Las Vegas, whom he declined to identify. He said detectives also discovered a computer in the car, but would not discuss what it contained.

With help from an informer in Las Vegas, police arrested Kimes and her son at a Manhattan hotel nine hours after Silverman disappeared from her townhouse in Manhattan.

The police commissioner said investigators believe the car may have been driven between 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. Safir said police in New Jersey were looking at areas near the parkway in the hope of finding Silverman.

“We don’t know where she is,” he said. “There is a lot of information. We have a lot of investigating to do.”

On Thursday, New York police released the sketch of a Latino man witnesses say is frequently seen with the Kimeses.

“Initially we were looking for the son--he seemed to be the most prominent because he had actually rented the apartment from Mrs. Silverman,” Mode said. “We know he is [often] in the company of a woman [his mother] and there is still a third fellow we’re looking for.”

The man was described as 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing about 150 pounds, Mode said. He is believed to be in his mid-20s.

Doug Hanna, chief of the criminal investigative unit for the Royal Bahamas police, said in a telephone interview Friday that he too wants to question Sante Kimes about the disappearance of Syed Bilal Ahmed, a 55-year-old banker from Bahrain based in the Cayman Islands.

Ahmed mysteriously vanished in September 1996 while on a business trip to Nassau, the Bahamas, for Gulf Union Bank, Hanna said.

“He came here as a legitimate businessman and he just disappeared,” Hanna said.

“During the course of the investigation, we came across the name of Sante Kimes and we knew there had been some association around the time [Ahmed] was last seen,” Hanna said. “Once we tried to interview her, she disappeared.”

Though Hanna has been in contact with police in New York, he has not decided whether to send investigators there, he said.