Los Angeles police detectives have linked six more slayings to the alleged Grim Sleeper serial killer after reviewing hundreds of unsolved homicide cases, missing persons reports, as well as a cache of photos of unidentified women found at the suspect’s home.
Law enforcement sources told The Times that with the new cases, 16 killings have been linked to Lonnie Franklin Jr., 59, who is already accused of killing 10 women whose bodies were found on the streets of South Los Angeles over two decades. Police have also identified a second woman who they say survived an attack by Franklin.
Even before Franklin’s July 2010 arrest, investigators suspected that they would eventually find that the man had killed more than the 10 women whose cases were linked to Franklin by ballistic and DNA evidence.
INTERACTIVE MAP: Grim Sleeper killings, 1985-2007
Detectives continued look for additional victims, taking the unusual step of releasing photographs of dozens of women found at Franklin’s home, hoping the public could help determine if they were victims.
Three of the newly identified victims were allegedly tied to Franklin through physical evidence, said a police source with knowledge of the investigation, who requested anonymity because the additional cases have not been made public. In two of those cases, ballistic evidence showed that the bullets used to kill the women were fired from a gun Franklin is accused of using in other killings, while DNA and ballistic tests connected him to a third women, the source said.
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