Francisco Acevedo, 41, now accused of raping and strangling three women in a New York suburb starting 21 years ago was never even suspected until he submitted a DNA sample after a drunken-driving arrest last year.

A Yonkers, NY detective John Geiss says he finally solved the case after “nine long years” of looking at over 100 suspects in connection with the deaths of three women who were raped and strangled in 1989, 1991, and 1996. He said at a news conference Thursday that his department never gave up investigating these murders. The killings were linked to each other by DNA and other evidence, but Francisco Acevedo was never even a suspect until he submitted a DNA sample after a drunk driving arrest last year, apparently as part of an application for parole.

Two of his victims, Maria Ramos, 26, killed Feb. 5, 1989, and Tawana Hodges, 28, killed March 28, 1991, lived in the Bronx and the third Kimberley Moore, 30, killed May 24, 1996, lived in Westchester. All were found naked, bound at the hands and facing up. Geiss said the three killings constituted the last unsolved multiple slaying in his cold-case files, though he still has 28 other cases ranging back to 1986.

Acevedo, who was already imprisoned upstate on the DWI charge, apparently had no idea detective in Yonkers were finally closing in on him and seemed surprised when he was arrested in an upstate prison on the murder charges. “I didn’t think we’d see the day that we’d come to the point we’re at now,” said detective John, “He wasn’t very happy to see us.”

Acevedo was indicted Wednesday on six counts of murder, three of which also allege rape. He pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole.

-article by Carlin DeGuerin Miller rewritten and adapted by admin-

The Hamilton County jury that convicted serial killer Anthony Kirkland, 41, of his fourth and fifth murders last week recommended the death penalty, after three and a half hours of deliberation.

The 41-year-old Kirkland pleaded guilty at the trial’s start to murdering Mary Jo Newton – 45, and 25-year-old Kimya Rolinson, whose badly decomposed remains were discovered in June 2008 – about 18 months after her death – in North Fairmount. Those tow murders did not carry possible death sentences but he received ultimate punishment in the deaths of two teen girls, Casonya “Sharee” Crawford, 14, and Esme Kenney, 13. He was convicted of their murders along with several other charges, including gross abuse of a corpse and attempted rape, that were used as aggravating circumstances by prosecutors as cause for the death penalty. “I don’t know how to handle a lot of stress,” Kirkland tearfully told the detective. “I’m not into drama. I don’t know how to – I lash out. It gets to the point where it’s overbearing.

Kirkland told the detective that he gave Crawford (his 14 years old victim) $60, but the teen became angry when he asked for sex and threw the money at him and called him names. “When she got mad, I got mad,” Kirkland told the detective. He chased her down a hillside to Victory Parkway, Kirkland admitted, where he strangled her. He then carried her body to a vacant lot on Blair Court, where he used lighter fluid to burn her remains. Kirkland also admitted using a rag and his hands to strangle 13-year-old Esme Kenney to death after sexually assaulting her in March of 2009. He said used the rag because his hands hurt from being out in the cold. He said he choked the girl with his hands, but couldn’t grab well enough and pulled a blue rag from his back pocket. “She was still living and gasping,” he said. “I was behind her. She was on her stomach.”

Kirkland stared straight ahead as he heard the words “death penalty” and said nothing as he left the courtroom headed to the Justice Center to await the actual sentencing on Wednesday, March 31 at 9 a.m. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said it was the right decision. “I think I’ve prosecuted four serial killers and there is a particular horrible type of evilness about this defendant,” Deters said. “I think it’s because the victims he preyed on were either drug-addicted, helpless women or they were little girls.”
“Some people might think (the jury) did this because of the horrendous crimes and the emotions involved in it,” said the elected jury’s foreman, “But the verdict that we reached was based on the facts and the law.”

Judge Kubicki will issue his sentence on March 31. If he accepts the jury’s recommendation and Kirkland is sentenced to death, the appeals process will likely prevent the lethal injection from taking place anywhere from 12 to 20 years. There are currently 161 inmates on Ohio’s death row with 33 sentenced from Hamilton County. Kirkland would become the 34th.

-articles from various news sources adapted by admin-

California authorities released more than 100 photos of women and children on Thursday that are believed to have been taken by a serial killer Rodney Alcala, who is now on trial. Alcala is convicted of killing 4 women and a girl in 1970s, but police strongly believe there might be more victims.

After releasing the photos, police have received plenty tips on a handful of other women who could be dead or missing. “We’ve received several calls saying that someone in a photo could be so-and-so who’s been missing or found dead,” Patrick Ellis, a detective with the Huntington Beach Police Department said Friday. “The response has been overwhelming, and that’s what we were looking for.”

Ellis said police received tips on as many as four dead or missing women who were identified by other people calling and e-mailing about the photos. “People are saying that they recognize someone from their past, from school or college or the neighborhood beach,” he said. They are trying to determine whether any of the people in the photos were victims of Rodney Alcala, although Ellis stressed that police have not confirmed that any of the women or children in the photos are dead or even missing.

The portrait-style photographs were discovered in a storage unit Alcala kept in Seattle, Washington, said Orange County district attorney spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder. The locker also contained earrings that belonged to Robin Samsoe, the 12-year-old girl whom Alcala abducted and killed in 1979. (Alcala tried to explain he had the earrings before as he was showing clips from the tv show The Dating Game. You can read more about his trial in Suspected Serial Killer Rodney Alcala’s Trial article.)

Here is the video with all the photos found in the locker in a storage unit Alcala kept In Seattle, Washington, and you can also take a look at all the photos on Nancy Grace blog

Anyone with information regarding the identities of the women and children in the photographs found in Alcala’s storage locker is asked to contact the Orange County District Attorney’s Office or the Huntington Beach Police Department.

-article from CNN rewritten and adapted by admin-

A new photo of young Peter Tobin resurfaced and presents the latest clue police are hoping will unravel the past of one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers.

On the photo on the left, you can see a sex murderer Peter Tobin as a man of 27, who is now serving a life sentence for the murder of 23-year-old Polish student Angelika Kluk and is linked to unresolved disappearances of several other young women in Sussex. Police are hoping the image will jog people’s memories if they knew Tobin as a young man and give officers a clearer view of his past.

There are fears that he may have killed many more and could have been carrying out gruesome sexual attacks in the county undetected throughout the seventies and eighties. Among those suspected of being Tobin’s victims is student Jessie Earl who disappeared from her Eastbourne bedsit in 1980 and whose remains were found at Beachy Head nine years later. Police are also listing Louise Kay, who was last seen in 1988 dropping a friend home from an Eastbourne club, as a potential Tobin victim.

Police have been gathering information about Tobin’s life in Brighton and Hove since three people came forward saying they knew about his time in the city. Tobin is thought to have been a member of a Biker Gang called the Rising Sun and officers are hoping to trace members of that group as well as a woman possibly called Lesley who lived at a seafront hotel in the city in 1986 and whose parents are believed to have attempted to legally prevent her from seeing Tobin.

They are also trying to trace items of women’s jewelry that Tobin owned which could help identify more victims and reveal the full extent of the vile acts of one of Britain’s most evil men.

Read more articles about Peter Tobin: Peter Tobin may have been a serial killer, Bible John case, serial killer Peter Tobin linked to a pedophile ring.

To contact the Operation Anagram team about Tobin call 0845 6070999.

-article from www.theargus.co.uk rewritten and adapted by admin-

Serial Killer Rodney Alcala was convicted of five serial slayings, for the third time, after being sentenced to death twice for killing the Orange County girl, but both convictions were overturned. He is also suspected in up to 30 more deaths.

A jury convicted Rodney Alcala, 66 years old amateur photographer, Thursday of murdering a 12-year-old girl and four women in the late 1970s, setting the stage for a possible death penalty in a legal saga that has dragged on 30 years. Jurors took less than two days to reach guilty verdicts against Rodney Alcala after six weeks of testimony. The penalty phase of the case begins Tuesday.

Police believe Alcala, who has been in custody since 1979 and has twice had previous convictions overturned, could be responsible for dozens more deaths in New York and Los Angeles in the 70s, and some even say he is a new Ted Bundy. Authorities said they were able to tie Alcala to the murder of four Los Angeles County women between 1977 and 1979. Investigators said they linked Alcala to the torture and murder of Jill Barcomb, 18; Georgia Wixted, 27; Charlotte Lamb, 32; and Jill Parenteau, 21, with DNA, blood and fingerprint evidence. Each murder carried a special circumstance charge that would make Alcala subject to the death penalty.

The Samsoe case, which was first tried in 1980, presented more of a challenge for prosecutors because it was built largely on circumstantial evidence. Murphy said he does not expect this third conviction to be overturned:
“This one is as clean as we can possibly make it for an appeal,” he said. “We’ve got a good jury and we feel very satisfied with the progress of the case so far.”

-articles by Gillian Flaccus and Nick Allen rewritten and adapted by admin-

Here is a Rodney Alcala’s case timeline by Kimi Yoshino:

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