According to authorities, the husband of a lady who was discovered dead inside a San Marino residence that had burned down has been taken into custody on suspicion of murder.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department reports that on the morning of January 6, firefighters put out a residence fire in the 2600 block of Lorain Road and discovered the death of 56-year-old Irene Gaw-Lai.
Detectives from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department started looking into the death as a homicide after officials reported that she had physical trauma on her upper body.
An arrest has been made almost six months later. According to the Sheriff’s Department, her husband, Yoon Lai, 63, was taken into custody in San Gabriel on Thursday.
The Sheriff’s Department plans to bring the case before the L.A. County district attorney’s office on Tuesday, and Lai is now being held on a no bail warrant.
Following an autopsy and toxicology tests, the L.A. County medical examiner declared Lai’s cause of death to be unknown. The woman’s body was severely charred, according to detectives who responded to the initial incident.
According to friends, Gaw-Lai was a popular doctor and the mother of twins, ABC7 News reported. The news outlet was informed by her neighbors that she was going through a difficult divorce.
According to court documents, in August 2024, Gaw-Lai filed a petition for divorce of marriage with young children. According to court documents, she had already petitioned for divorce from Lai in 2003.
According to the Medical Board of California, Gaw-Lai, who also went by the last name Gaw Gonzalo, was a licensed endocrinologist. On her Arcadia practice’s Yelp page, a number of her patients posted heartfelt notes.
Endocrinologist extraordinaire! I’m really sorry for her loss. One patient commented, “The staff was just as professional and likeable as her, which is really hard to find in the medical industry.” I’m still trying to process the devastating loss to the industry and mourn her terribly. Because of her, I knew that my health was improving.
Sheriff’s Lt. Steven De Jong told ABC7 Newson that on the day of the incident, her husband first told authorities that he had taken their two sons to baseball practice and returned to discover their house on fire.
