2017
Marguerite Rizzo, Beth Silverman, Paul Przelomiec
Denver, CO
From 1985 through 1988, an unknown killer had stalked the streets of South Los Angeles, murdering seven women, and attempting to murder an eighth victim. The murdered women had been shot with a .25 caliber handgun or strangled. A common DNA profile was developed from seven of the victims. Local, state, and national DNA database searches yielded negative results. The same unrecovered .25 caliber firearm used to shoot surviving victim Enietra Washington was also used to kill seven of the murder victims. In 2007, when the LAPD Task Force took a fresh look at the murders and the attempted murder of Enietra Washington, they discovered a decade’s long gap between the killings. This hiatus led a LA Weekly reporter in 2008 to nickname the serial killer the “Grim Sleeper.” The name stuck, leading to a public media campaign and a $500,000 reward for information leading to the “Grim Sleeper’s” arrest. In 2008, the LAPD requested the California Department of Justice to perform a Familial Search of the state convicted offender DNA database. No relatives were identified in that first search. LAPD made another request in 2010. On July 2, 2010, DOJ revealed that the recent search identified a possible relative in the convicted offender database . . . 28 year old Christopher Franklin, who was convicted on a felony weapons charge that had been added to the state database in 2009. Investigators focused on Franklin’s father, Lonnie David Franklin Jr. as a possible suspect. The LAPD Task Force launched an intensive surveillance operation, following Franklin’s every move in an attempt to collect a biological sample they could use to compare Franklin’s DNA directly to the DNA profiles developed from the evidence. On July 7, 2010, LAPD arrested Lonnie Franklin Jr. at his home in South Los Angeles. Investigators found and collected hundreds of items during the execution of a three day search warrant at his home. Among the items they found was a .25 semiautomatic handgun used to shoot Janecia Peters. Behind a wall in Franklin’s garage, investigators found a Polaroid photograph of victim Enietra Washington. The photograph portrays Washington sitting in the front seat of a vehicle with her blouse ripped open, bleeding, and possibly unconscious. On May 5, 2016 a jury found the defendant guilty of ten murders and one attempted murder. One month later, the jury voted to impose the death penalty.