Suspected serial killer who was long-haul truck driver charged after DNA links him to 47-year-old murders
Warren Luther Alexander, 73, is also suspected in other unsolved murders around the country
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A suspected serial killer has been charged with the murders of three women in Southern California nearly 50 years ago.
Kimberly Fritz, 18, Velvet Sanchez, 31, and Lorraine Rodriguez, 21, were all strangled to death in 1977, but investigators ran out of leads at the time.
"While believing these three crimes were indeed connected, leads ran cold, and detectives were unable to identify who was responsible for these horrific murders," Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said at a press conference this week.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Warren Luther Alexander of Diamondhead, Mississippi, who worked as a long-haul truck driver at the time, was linked to the murders when his DNA matched the crime scenes after being uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national database, last year.
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A suspected serial killer has been charged with the murders of three women in Southern California nearly 50 years ago. (Ventura County District Attorney's Office)
Alexander was extradited from North Carolina Tuesday, where he was in custody and charged with a murder there in 1992.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The California victims were all murdered between the end of May 1977 and December 1977.
"These murders may have occurred 47 years ago, but the investigators with the Ventura County DA’s office, the investigators with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Cold Case Unit, officers and detectives with Port Hueneme and Oxnard never gave up. They never gave up seeking justice for these three victims and loved ones and their families," Nasarenko said.
"Just because the case has gone cold does not mean it should ever be forgotten."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}All three women were sex workers and frequented a shopping center and motels in the LA area that were known for prostitution at the time, officials said.
Alexander is being held without bail.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kimberly Fritz, 18, Velvet Sanchez, 31, and Lorraine Rodriguez, 21, were all strangled to death in 1977, but investigators ran out of leads at the time. (Ventura County District Attorney's Office)
Officials said they believe he could be a suspect in other unsolved murders in California and other states while he was working as a truck driver from the 1970s until the 1990s.
"We believe there may be additional victims both locally and in other states," Nasarenko said. "This is an ongoing investigation, and we will continue to pursue all leads that become available. This is not in any way closed."
Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko says Alexander is suspected in other unsolved murders around the country. (Ventura County District Attorney's Office)
He was arrested in North Carolina in 2022 for the 1992 killing of Nona Cobb, 29.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Alexander grew up in Oxnard, California, where Sanchez was killed in September 1977, and he moved back to the area in the 1970s.
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"For Warren Luther Alexander, once a fugitive from justice, the day of reckoning in Ventura County has finally arrived," Nasarenko said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FOX 5 and the Associated Press contributed to this report.