Authorities on Monday requested permission to allow police detectives to take a voice sample of the man accused of being the Grim Sleeper serial killer for comparison with voice recordings from an anonymous male caller who had reported at least two of the killings to 911 operators.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 58, a retired sanitation worker and mechanic accused of being a serial killer dubbed the “Grim Sleeper”, was indicted in March on 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Franklin, 57, was arrested in July 2010 at his South L.A. home and charged with murder in the slayings of Ware as well as of Debra Jackson, 29; Henrietta Wright, 35; Bernita Sparks, age unknown; Mary Lowe, 26; Lachrica Jefferson, 22; Alicia Alexander, 18; Princess Berthomieux, 15; Valerie McCorvey, 35; and Janecia Peters, 25. Franklin, who has pleaded not guilty, is also charged with one count of attempted murder, apparently stemming from the assault, the only Grim Sleeper victim that police said is known to have survived. Franklin was initially suspected after police took a DNA sample from his son in an unrelated case and found that it closely resembled DNA evidence recovered in the “Grim Sleeper” murders.

Police believe he may have reported one of his own murders to police. “Obviously, we want to compare his voice, so we think he is the caller,” said Det. Dennis Kilcoyne. One of the calls that was preserved was a man reporting criminal activity in an alley where victim Barbara Ware, 23, was found shot to death Jan. 10, 1987. Authorities say they have at least one other voice recording but declined to discuss the case, saying it involved a crime that Franklin had not been charged with. Police say serial killers sometimes report their own crimes so they can hide near the murder scene and watch the commotion.

Los Angeles police said in April that Franklin may have killed eight additional women, including three whose photos and identification cards were found in a refrigerator in his garage.

-articles by Andrew Blankstein and Dan Whitcomb rewritten and adapted by admin-

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-