More Dead Women Found in 'Grim Sleeper' Case?

Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights

Folks following the "Grim Sleeper" murder case in Los Angeles probably got the same bad feeling I had when police announced they were seeking the public's help in identifying dozens of women in photos found at suspect Lonnie D. Franklin Jr.'s home.

It seems our concerns were justified.

Police said they believe Franklin may be responsible for killing two more women whose bodies were found in South Los Angeles in the 1990s. These deaths are in addition to the 10 killings Franklin has been charged with in the serial murder case.

Franklin has pleaded not guilty to the 10 murders.

Several of the murder victims were black female prostitutes whom Franklin is believed to have employed. One victim was a black male.

So when police announced in December that a search of Franklin's home revealed a stash of sexually explicit photos and video tapes of approximately 160 mostly black young women, people started getting nervous.

Fears grew in the Los Angeles area among people who had lost young black female friends and relatives to the streets in the past two decades. Were they among Franklin's unidentified victims, they wondered?

Thus far, about 72 women in the pictures have been identified and ruled out as victims and 62 have yet to be identified. Four new missing persons cases have been opened involving women in the photos.

Franklin was arrested last August when investigators used a controversial technique called a familial DNA search that implicated the former car mechanic through his son's DNA.

Police believed that Franklin had murdered the 10 women during two separate time frames, from 1985 to 1988 and from 2002 to 2007.

But if Franklin is indeed responsible for the death of the two additional women whose bodies were found in the 1990s, Franklin may not have taken a 14-year pause from the killings, which is what earned him the nickname the Grim Sleeper.

The only thing that is certain in this murder mystery is that nothing is certain.

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