Three women found strangled in 1977, California cops say. Now, 73-year-old man charged

More than four decades after three women were found strangled in California, a 73-year-old Mississippi man has been charged in their deaths, officials said.

In May of 1977, police responded to a motel and found 18-year-old Kimberly Fritz dead, officials said in an Aug. 8 press conference by police and the district attorney’s office.

DNA was recovered from Fritz at the scene, officials said.

Fritz was born in Michigan, and her cause of death was later deemed to be strangulation, officials said.

Four months later in September, officers found 31-year-old Velvet Ann Sanchez dead in a motel, officials said.

Sanchez, born in Texas, had a ligature around her neck and her cause of death was later determined to be strangulation, officials said

In the third case, Ventura County deputies responded to a bridge in December of 1977 and found the body of 21-year-old Lorraine Rodriguez, authorities said.

Rodriguez, a mom of two born in Kansas, had also been strangled, officials said.

Officers didn’t have any leads so the case eventually went cold.

Then in 2023, Ventura County Sheriff’s Cold Case Unit started reexamining the homicides , officials said.

Officials uploaded DNA into the nationwide database and got a match for Warren Luther Alexander, a long-haul cross country truck driver from Diamondhead, Mississippi, officials said.

In 2022, Alexander was arrested in North Carolina for a 1992 homicide, officials said.

“It is the matching of our evidence against the North Carolina one that led us here today,” District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said in the press conference.

Alexander has been charged with three counts of murder, authorities said. He is being held in a Ventura County jail without bond.

Officials believe there are additional victims both nationally and locally, Nasarenko said.

Ventura County is about a 70-mile drive northwest of Los Angeles.

This story was originally published August 9, 2024 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Three women found strangled in 1977, California cops say. Now, 73-year-old man charged."