Grim Sleeper Probe Expands To Determine If Suspect Lonnie Franklin Jr. Can Be Connected To Unsolved Murders
Los Angeles police on Thursday said detectives were looking into several unsolved homicides -- all with women as the victims -- to see if they might be connected to the Grim Sleeper serial murder case.
LAPD Lonnie Franklin Jr.
Lonnie Franklin Jr. was arrested at his home in South Los Angeles Wednesday and later charged with ten counts of murder in connection with the case. Leaving no stone unturned, police told the Weekly that pretty much every unsolved murder of a female since 1985, when the Sleeper spree started, would be looked at.
"They are looking at all the unsolved cases going back 25 years," Los Angeles police spokeswoman Sarah Faden told the Weekly. The probe "involves women who have been killed in the city of Los Angeles. They are following up with those investigations to see if by chance there are similarities."
Asked if there was a specific number of cases being looked at for possible connections, as was reported elsewhere, Faden said, "Absolutely not."
"They're just looking at all all the unsolved murders," she said.
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said its own homicide detectives would compare DNA evidence in the Sleeper case to unsolved murders in unincorporated portions of South L.A. where deputies have jurisdiction -- but not just yet:
"We're waiting for DNA evident to come back from CODIS [the FBI's DNA database]," Whitmore told the Weekly, "and when that occurs we will revisit this again and it will change how we approach this."
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