A “suspected serial killer” from Mississippi has been indicted in connection with the unsolved strangulation deaths of three women in Southern California in 1977, and authorities believe there may be more victims, prosecutors said Thursday.
Warren Luther Alexander, 73, was indicted on three murder charges in Ventura County after being extradited from North Carolina on Tuesday. He also awaits indictment in another unsolved murder that happened in Surry County in 1992.
The three California victims – Kimberly Carol Fritz, 18, Velvet Ann Sanchez, 31, and Ann Rodriguez, 21 – were all sex workers and were killed by “binding and strangulation,” District Attorney Eric Nasarenko told reporters.
Fritz was found dead in Port Hueneme on May 29, 1977. Sanchez’s body was found in Oxnard on September 8, and Rodriguez’s body was found in an unincorporated area on December 27.
All three frequented an area north of Los Angeles known for prostitution.
“Although we believed these three crimes were indeed related, the leads were elusive and detectives were unable to identify the perpetrator of these horrific murders,” Nasarenko said.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit reopened the case last February and matched DNA evidence found at each scene with evidence uploaded to a national database, the district attorney said.
“Just because the case is solved doesn’t mean it should be forgotten.” Nasarenko added..
Investigative genealogy identified Alexander as a suspect in the murder of 29-year-old Nona Cobb in North Carolina, whose body was found strangled and abandoned along Interstate 77.
According to North Carolina media reports, Alexander was arrested in March 2022 for Cobb’s murder. The case has not yet gone to trial.
Nasarenko said the suspect grew up in Oxnard, Ventura County, in the late 1950s and 1960s, attended elementary, middle and high school there, and returned to the city in the 1970s.
According to Nasarenko, Alexander was a long-distance, cross-country truck driver from the 1970s through to the early 1990s.
Authorities believe he may have killed others.
“We believe there may be additional victims both locally and in other states,” he said. “This is an ongoing investigation and we will continue to pursue all available leads.”
“This is by no means closed.”
Alexander made his initial appearance in Ventura County Superior Court on Thursday morning and is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 21.
He is being held in the Ventura County Jail without bail.
With post wire
