Authorities in California have accused a former long-haul trucker of murdering three women in 1977.
That year, across several months, Kimberly Fritz, 18, Lorraine Rodriguez, 21, and Velvet Sanchez, 31, were found strangled to deathin different locations in Ventura County, Calif., the county sheriff’s office said at a press conference on Thursday, Aug. 8.
Warren Luther Alexander, 73, was arrested in connection with the deaths and transported to Ventura on Tuesday Aug. 7, from Surry County, N.C., where he was in custody on a separate murder charge, the sheriff’s office said.
All three California victims in Ventura were found with ligature marks around their necks, and the victims’ autopsies determined they’d been strangled, authorities said at the briefing.
Warren Luther Alexander Mugshot (left); and Composite Sketch.
Ventura County District Attorney’s Office via AP; Ventura County Star
Fritz was discovered dead in a motel in Port Hueneme in May 1997, when police responded to a call and found her lying on the floor in a room. The teenager was one of three sisters, police said.
Sanchez, a mom of three, was found slain in Oxnard in September 1977, after witnesses reported seeing her go into a motel room with an adult man, Oxnard police said at the press conference.
Rodriguez, a mom of one, was found after police were called to a bridge in Ventura County in December 1977 regarding a body that had been found, the sheriff’s office said.
Alexander was a long-haul truck driver at the time of the California killings, authorities said.
Erik Nasarenko, the Ventura County District Attorney, told reporters they recovered “forensic evidence” collected from the women’s bodies and clothing that eventually helped catch the suspect. The women were all sex-workers and police believe Alexander picked them up for commercial sex before the murders. Authorities did not comment on whether the victims had been sexually assaulted.
Nasarenko said that authorities at the time noticed a “pattern” in the killings, and suspected they were related.
In 2022, unbeknownst to authorities in California, Alexander was arrested in North Carolina after allegedly being identified through his DNA as the suspect in the killing of 29-year-old Nona Cobb, who had also been strangled to death, authorities said at the press briefing. She was found along the highway.
With Alexander’s DNA in the system due to his 2022 arrest, police were allegedly able to connect him to the Ventura County murders last year.
Alexander has been charged with three counts of murder, Nasarenko’s office said in a press release. He being held in Ventura County without bond, per authorities.
Nasarenko said authorities believe Alexander might have other victims across the state and country.
It wasn’t immediately clear if he has entered pleas for the murder charges in both states or retained attorneys.
An investigation is ongoing.
