Warren Luther Alexander, a 73-year-old man from Diamondhead, Mississippi, has been charged with the strangulation deaths of three women in Southern California in 1977. Cold case detectives obtained a DNA match, leading to the charges. Authorities believe there may be additional victims.
Alexander made his first court appearance on Thursday, and his arraignment on three counts of first-degree murder has been postponed to August 21. He is currently being held without bail. The case has been assigned to the county public defender’s office.
Alexander was extradited to California from Surry County, North Carolina, where he is awaiting prosecution for a 1992 cold case killing. The California victims, all sex workers in Ventura County, were killed by “ligature strangulations” and frequented an area known for sex trafficking.
The victims were identified as Kimberly Fritz, 18, who was found dead in the city of Port Hueneme on May 29, 1977; Velvet Sanchez, 31, found dead on September 8, 1977, in the city of Oxnard; and Lorraine Rodriguez, 21, found dead on December 27, 1977, in an unincorporated area.
Despite believing that these three crimes were connected, investigators were unable to identify the perpetrator until a DNA match to Alexander was made last year. The DNA evidence was uploaded into a national database, and investigative genealogy identified Alexander as a suspect in the North Carolina case of Nona Cobb, whose body was found along Interstate 77. A previous query of the database in 2006 had failed to find a match.
Alexander had lived in Oxnard in the late 1950s and ’60s, attending local schools, and returned to the area in the 1970s. He worked as a long-haul, cross-country truck driver from the 1970s to the early 1990s.
District Attorney Erik Nasarenko stated that they believe there may be additional victims both locally and in other states.
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Did you know that the rate of unsolved murders in the United States is estimated to be around 40%? This case from 1977 highlights the importance of cold case investigations and the potential for justice to be served even decades later.