Post by Anja on Jun 9, 2006 12:22:39 GMT -5
DNA May Be Clue in 10 Old Killings
A prison inmate is a person of interest in the unsolved deaths -- mostly
of women -- over decades in the South L.A. area.
Inglewood police said Thursday they were awaiting the results of a DNA
sample taken from a 65-year-old man being held in state prison to
determine whether he might have a connection to 10 unsolved slayings that
occurred over the last 2 decades.
Detectives stressed that they have not conclusively linked the killings to
one assailant but said they found enough similarities in the crimes to ask
a judge for a DNA sample from Roger Hausmann, currently behind bars in
Fresno while awaiting trial in a kidnapping case.
The judge agreed to the request, and Inglewood Police Det. Jeffrey
Steinhoff recently traveled to Fresno to take a sample of Hausmann's
saliva.
The 10 cases that detectives are focusing on mostly involved women -
including several prostitutes - whose bodies were found in Inglewood and
surrounding communities such as South Los Angeles. The possible link in
the cases was first reported by the L.A. Weekly.
Steinhoff said in an interview Thursday that he was investigating the cold
case of a 14-year-old girl who was raped and killed in March 2002 when he
discovered that DNA found on her body matched that on the bodies of 3
other homicide victims.
2 of those victims were shot with a handgun linked to 6 other area
killings, he said.
The department hopes to know in coming weeks whether the DNA found on the
girl matches the sample taken from Hausmann.
"It will all come down to the DNA," said Steinhoff, who is working with
the Los Angeles Police Department's cold case unit. "We're all waiting for
the same thing."
Hausmann's name entered the investigation after Fresno County officials
alerted L.A. authorities last year. Hausmann, the Fresno officials said,
"made comments that when he was in Los Angeles, he had killed a number of
prostitutes," said Capt. Ed Winter of the L.A. County coroner's serial
homicide team.
Detectives said they were still trying to fit together the pieces of the
cases and were not certain how many of the killings were related.
Steinhoff said that if Hausmann's DNA is not a match, he will be
eliminated as a suspect but that detectives will continue to look into
possible links among the killings.
The case comes 2 years after another in which the LAPD charged a man in
the deaths of 10 women whose cases had remained unsolved for years.
Police have accused Chester D. Turner of killing the women - and a
victim's fetus - during an 11-year rampage that began in 1987. He has
pleaded not guilty.
Turner is serving an 8-year prison sentence in a rape case. Genetic
testing conducted after that conviction tied him to sperm cell matter
found on the bodies of the 10 women, according to an analyst with the
LAPD's Scientific Investigations Division.
Turner's DNA was also allegedly linked to two other killings that were
wrongly blamed on David Allen Jones, who was released from prison in March
because of wrongful convictions. Turner has not been charged in those
killings.
Hausmann, who could not be reached for comment, is expected to go on trial
Monday. The former repossessor is charged with kidnapping, false
imprisonment and criminal threats in connection with an abduction
involving 2 women, said Bob Ellis, an assistant district attorney in
Fresno County.
Inglewood detectives said they couldn't be sure when the DNA test would
come back. The speed of the testing process depends on the lab's caseload.
Testing related to a current trial or active investigation "will take
precedence over a cold case," Steinhoff said. "After all, the guy isn't
going anywhere. He's already in prison."
(source: Los Angeles Times)
A prison inmate is a person of interest in the unsolved deaths -- mostly
of women -- over decades in the South L.A. area.
Inglewood police said Thursday they were awaiting the results of a DNA
sample taken from a 65-year-old man being held in state prison to
determine whether he might have a connection to 10 unsolved slayings that
occurred over the last 2 decades.
Detectives stressed that they have not conclusively linked the killings to
one assailant but said they found enough similarities in the crimes to ask
a judge for a DNA sample from Roger Hausmann, currently behind bars in
Fresno while awaiting trial in a kidnapping case.
The judge agreed to the request, and Inglewood Police Det. Jeffrey
Steinhoff recently traveled to Fresno to take a sample of Hausmann's
saliva.
The 10 cases that detectives are focusing on mostly involved women -
including several prostitutes - whose bodies were found in Inglewood and
surrounding communities such as South Los Angeles. The possible link in
the cases was first reported by the L.A. Weekly.
Steinhoff said in an interview Thursday that he was investigating the cold
case of a 14-year-old girl who was raped and killed in March 2002 when he
discovered that DNA found on her body matched that on the bodies of 3
other homicide victims.
2 of those victims were shot with a handgun linked to 6 other area
killings, he said.
The department hopes to know in coming weeks whether the DNA found on the
girl matches the sample taken from Hausmann.
"It will all come down to the DNA," said Steinhoff, who is working with
the Los Angeles Police Department's cold case unit. "We're all waiting for
the same thing."
Hausmann's name entered the investigation after Fresno County officials
alerted L.A. authorities last year. Hausmann, the Fresno officials said,
"made comments that when he was in Los Angeles, he had killed a number of
prostitutes," said Capt. Ed Winter of the L.A. County coroner's serial
homicide team.
Detectives said they were still trying to fit together the pieces of the
cases and were not certain how many of the killings were related.
Steinhoff said that if Hausmann's DNA is not a match, he will be
eliminated as a suspect but that detectives will continue to look into
possible links among the killings.
The case comes 2 years after another in which the LAPD charged a man in
the deaths of 10 women whose cases had remained unsolved for years.
Police have accused Chester D. Turner of killing the women - and a
victim's fetus - during an 11-year rampage that began in 1987. He has
pleaded not guilty.
Turner is serving an 8-year prison sentence in a rape case. Genetic
testing conducted after that conviction tied him to sperm cell matter
found on the bodies of the 10 women, according to an analyst with the
LAPD's Scientific Investigations Division.
Turner's DNA was also allegedly linked to two other killings that were
wrongly blamed on David Allen Jones, who was released from prison in March
because of wrongful convictions. Turner has not been charged in those
killings.
Hausmann, who could not be reached for comment, is expected to go on trial
Monday. The former repossessor is charged with kidnapping, false
imprisonment and criminal threats in connection with an abduction
involving 2 women, said Bob Ellis, an assistant district attorney in
Fresno County.
Inglewood detectives said they couldn't be sure when the DNA test would
come back. The speed of the testing process depends on the lab's caseload.
Testing related to a current trial or active investigation "will take
precedence over a cold case," Steinhoff said. "After all, the guy isn't
going anywhere. He's already in prison."
(source: Los Angeles Times)