Business Rival Sought in Realty Agent’s Death

The search for the killer of a successful Long Beach real estate broker who was shot in the head and stuffed in the trunk of her car centered Saturday on a rival broker who disappeared the day of the slaying, authorities said.

Vicente Lapid OCampo, 45, was being sought by police for questioning in the shooting death of Arlene Lee Chee, who was found in the trunk of her Mercedes-Benz on Thursday night just a few blocks from OCampo’s Long Beach office.

Police and family members said Chee, 46, disappeared Wednesday after leaving her realty office for a noon appointment with OCampo.

Chee, owner of Century 21 Fortune Realty in Long Beach, was found by members of her family Thursday shortly after 9 p.m. About 30 members of the family had fanned out across Long Beach looking for the small, quiet women until her white Mercedes-Benz coupe was located on Fashion Avenue not far from OCampo’s office.

Chee, who lived in Seal Beach, had been shot once in the head, police said.

OCampo worked with Chee before starting his own brokerage firm, Realty One, about six years ago. Long Beach Detective Ron Pavek would reveal few details about the case, except to say he was seeking an arrest warrant for OCampo.

Police said earlier that OCampo and Chee may have been arguing over a real estate agent who had left OCampo’s office to go to work for Chee two weeks ago. That employee, identified by family members as Corine Bolden, could not be reached for comment.

At OCampo’s Realty One office in Long Beach, the telephone went unanswered Saturday and his wife could not be reached for comment.

Manolita OCampo, the suspect’s wife, met with Pavek and other investigators Saturday morning but said she had no idea where her husband had gone.

“The last Mrs. OCampo saw of her husband was at work on Wednesday,” said Leonard Matsuk, the OCampo family lawyer.

Matsuk said the suspect’s wife knew nothing about a dispute between Chee and her husband. “We understood that he was on friendly terms with the victim,” Matsuk said.

Jim Minks, a broker in Chee’s Long Beach office for the past six years, said that he had talked to Bolden on Thursday night and that she did not know anything about Chee’s death. He said Bolden joined Century 21 Fortune Realty because there was not enough business at OCampo’s office.

On the other hand, Minks said Chee’s Long Beach office had received a special citation from Century 21 for doing $30 million in sales last year.

One of the victim’s brothers-in-law, Alan Chee, described Arlene Lee Chee, who had four children, as “a very dynamic person. . . . She built this business from the grass roots. The office is one of the best in Long Beach--residential, apartments and income property.”