LA offers $500,000 reward for 'grim sleeper' killer
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 07:17:00 09/04/2008
Filed Under: Crime, Murder
LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles city officials announced up to $500,000 in rewards on Wednesday for information leading to the arrest of a serial killer believed to be responsible for 11 murders.
The murders all occurred between 1985 and 2007, a period which included a 13-year hiatus that led to local media dubbing the killer the "grim sleeper."
"This individual committed several homicides from 1985 through 1988, and then there was a 13-year hiatus. What accounted for that gap we still don't know," Los Angeles Police Department captain Denis Cremins said.
The murders were linked following the establishment of an LAPD cold case unit in 2001 to probe unsolved homicides. The 11 murders were connected in 2006 after police matched DNA and ballistics evidence.
"They have linked these cases as having common threads of evidence -- ballistics, DNA and a variety of other forensics," Los Angeles councilor Bernard Parks, who sponsored the reward, said Wednesday.
Ten of the victims were young black women whose bodies were dumped in south Los Angeles.
Police believe most of the dead women were working as prostitutes.
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