The authorities in Ventura County, California, have charged Warren Luther Alexander with the murder of three women who were killed nearly five decades ago.
The 73-year-old suspect was already in custody in North Carolina after his arrest last year for a suspected murder in 1992. The cops stated this week that there may be many more victims attributed to Alexander.
On May 29, 1977, the remains of 18-year-old Kimberly Fritz were found in a hotel in Port Hueneme. On September 9, the body of 31-year-old Velvet Ann Sanchez was discovered in an Oxnard motel. Both women had been strangled with their undergarments.
In December, the body of 21-year-old Lorraine Ann Rodriguez was found dumped by the side of the road in Oxnard; she, too, had been strangled similarly.
The three women were sex workers who frequented motels in Ventura County. At the time, the cops believed the murders were related. The killer had positioned the bodies in a distinctive manner that the coroner said was intended “to degrade the victim.”
Suspected Warren Luther Alexander arrested using DNA evidence
Unfortunately, the police had been unable to catch the killer until now. In 2006, cold case detectives uploaded DNA from the crime scenes to CODIS, the nationwide law enforcement DNA database, but there was no match.
However, the detectives tried again last year and they got a hit with Alexander.
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The suspect’s DNA was uploaded onto CODIS last year when he was arrested on suspicion of the 1992 killing of 29-year-old Nona Cobb. In this case, the victim was similarly strangled, and her body was dumped along Interstate 77 in North Carolina.
Without going into detail, the police said DNA also played a role in this arrest.
A ‘day of reckoning’ for Ventura County, California, as cops say 47-year-old murders solved after Warren Alexander arrest
Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko gave a press conference yesterday and claimed, “The day of reckoning in Ventura County has finally arrived.”
Nasarenko added, “These murders may have occurred 47 years ago, but the investigators … never gave up. They never gave up seeking justice for these three victims, their loved ones, and their families. Just because a case has gone cold does not mean it should ever be forgotten.”
The police also noted yesterday how this arrest was made possible due to advancements in DNA technology and greater communication between nationwide law enforcement agencies.
Alexander was originally from Diamondhead, Mississippi, but appears to have spent most of his life in the Oxnard area. He worked as an electrician with the U.S. Marine Corps before living in Oxnard and working as a long-haul truck driver from the 1970s through the ’90s.