The Los Angeles Police Department has been investigating these cases for more than 20 years. The LAPD believes there is a serial killer at large, with a weapon and DNA evidence in common in all of these cases. Nearly every victim was a young black woman. Police say the victims were sexually abused and their bodies abandoned in the same general area, near Western Avenue in south Los Angeles.
"Someone out there knows who this person is and it's been going on for 24 years and this is the time that it's going to come to a stop," said /*LAPD Detective Dennis Kilcoyne*/.
The /*L.A. Weekly*/ has called the killer "/*The Grim Sleeper*/." One of the victims was 18-year-old /*Monique Alexander*/, who went to the store and never came back.
"She was shot in the chest and she bled to death," said Alexander's father.
Ballistics tests showed that the gun that killed Alexander was linked to seven other murders in the 1980s. Until recently, her family had no idea she was the victim of a serial killer.
"It's a bitter feeling," said Alexander's father. "It's a feeling that I can't seem to get rid of."
"She was loved just like anyone else," said Alexander's mother. "We loved her dearly. I miss her."
But with another murder in 2007, detectives hope to raise awareness about all these cases and find new information that might help them to catch the killer.
"Keep highlighting these cases so that the public, who might have a thread of information, are willing to come forward and let the police know," said Councilman Bernard Parks.
If you have information relating to these cases, you are asked to call the LAPD at (877) LAPD-247, (877-527-3247).
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