Suspect In Palm Desert Wife Killing, Another Man, Awaits Charges

PALM DESERT, CA — A man suspected of fatally stabbing his wife and another man in what authorities called a domestic violence confrontation at a Palm Desert hotel parking lot was behind bars Monday.

Kenny Shun Yu Wu, 34, of Palm Desert, was formally arrested Sunday afternoon after being treated at a hospital for what authorities described as critical injuries.

He was booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center on suspicion of murder, lying in wait and kidnapping and was being held without bail, according to inmate records. Formal charges were pending as of Monday morning.

Deputies from the sheriff's Palm Desert station responded at 6:55 a.m. Friday to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon in the parking lot of the SpringHill Suites hotel in the 72300 block of Highway 111, Riverside County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Ben Ramirez said.

In the parking lot, deputies found a man and a woman, who were pronounced dead at the scene within minutes of the deputies' arrival, Ramirez said. Wu was found alive with blunt force trauma to his body and taken to a hospital.

Using video surveillance, detectives determined the deaths and the assault to be a case of domestic violence, authorities said.

The dead woman was identified as Yaying Wu, 31, also of Palm Desert, the suspect's wife. Police said the male victim was Jesus Sanchez, 30, of Cathedral City.

Sheriff's officials declined to provide further details, including the nature of the relationship between the deceased man and woman.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information about the case was asked to call the Palm Desert sheriff's station's Investigation Bureau at 760-836-1600 or Investigator Munoz with the Central Homicide Unit at 951-955- 2777.