Suspected serial killer, long-haul truck driver, charged after DNA linked him to 47-year-old killings

A suspected serial killer has been charged with the murders of three women in Southern California nearly 50 years ago.

Kimberly Fritz, 18, Velvet Sanchez, 31, and Lorraine Rodriguez, 21, were all strangled to death in 1977, but investigators were running out of leads at the time.

“While we believe these three crimes were indeed connected, the leads have gone cold and detectives have been unable to identify the person responsible for these horrific murders,” Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said at a news conference this week.

Warren Luther Alexander, of Diamondhead, Mississippi, who worked as a long-haul truck driver at the time, was linked to the killings when his DNA matched crime scenes after it was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national database, last year.

TEXAS MAN ARRESTED IN UNSOLVED 1982 MURDER OF MOTHER, YOUNG DAUGHTER DIES BEFORE TRIAL

A suspected serial killer has been charged with the murders of three women in Southern California nearly 50 years ago. (Ventura County District Attorney's Office)

Alexander was extradited Tuesday from North Carolina, where he was being held on charges of a 1992 murder.

The California victims were all murdered between late May 1977 and December 1977.

“These murders may have happened 47 years ago, but investigators from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, investigators from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s Cold Case Unit, officers and detectives from Port Hueneme and Oxnard never gave up. They never gave up on seeking justice for these three victims, their loved ones and their families,” Nasarenko said.

“Just because the case is closed doesn't mean it should be forgotten.”

The three women were sex workers and frequented a Los Angeles-area mall and motels that were known for prostitution at the time, authorities said.

Alexander is being held without bail.

SHERRI PAPINI, CALIFORNIA'S FAMOUS ABDUCTION FEATURE, GIVES NEW CARE TO FELLOW'S 1998 DISAPPEARANCE

Kimberly Fritz, 18, Velvet Sanchez, 31, and Lorraine Rodriguez, 21, were all strangled to death in 1977, but investigators were running out of leads at the time. (Ventura County District Attorney's Office)

Authorities said they believe he may be a suspect in other unsolved murders in California and other states while he worked as a truck driver from the 1970s to the 1990s.

“We believe there may be additional victims, both locally and in other states,” Nasarenko said. “The investigation is ongoing and we will continue to follow up on all leads that come forward. The case is by no means closed.”

Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said Alexander is suspected of other unsolved murders across the country. (Ventura County District Attorney's Office)

He was arrested in North Carolina in 2022 for the 1992 murder of 29-year-old Nona Cobb.

Alexander grew up in Oxnard, California, where Sanchez was killed in September 1977, and returned to the area in the 1970s.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“For Warren Luther Alexander, once a fugitive from justice, the day of reckoning in Ventura County has finally arrived,” Nasarenko said.

FOX 5 and The Associated Press contributed to this report.