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Grim Sleeper Serial Killer Linked to Six New Victims in Los Angeles
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Saturday, October 29, 2011
Lonnie Franklin Jr., 59, was arrested by law enforcement on July 7, 2010 at his home in South Los Angeles for the murder of 10 women. This was the first time a Familial DNA search caught a serial killer in the United States. Franklin's son had been arrested and his DNA profile was entered into CODIS. The son's DNA was linked to the serial killer, known as the Grim Sleeper. Some of the victims were also linked by ballistic analysis.
Now, Los Angeles police detectives have linked six more murdered women to the Grim Sleeper serial killings after reviewing hundreds of unsolved homicide cases and missing person reports, as well as a cache of photos of unidentified women found at the man's home. Law enforcement said that these new cases will bring the total number of killings to 16 victims. Franklin is already charged with murder in the slayings of 10 women whose bodies were found on the streets of South Los Angeles over two decades. Seven of the women he is accused of killing died between 1985 and 1988. While the other women were killed between 2002 and 2007. Although the detectives investigating the case have long been skeptical of the idea that the killer had taken a break.
Prosecutors have alleged that Franklin, a former LAPD garage attendant, city garbage collector and mechanic, sexually assaulted and then killed women on the margins of society - including some prostitutes and drug addicts - over nearly a quarter century.
Franklin has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody.
Read the article here.
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