Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 4, 1990 TAG: 9006040142
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: PIERRE THOMAS AND STEPHANIE GRIFFITH THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
On May 31, the body of yet another woman was found, this time in a grassy area next to a west Alexandria, Va., office complex. It was unclear whether the death of the woman, who remained unidentified, is related to any of the other cases.
The seven prostitutes - the first was killed in April 1989, the two latest last weekend - worked along L Street between 12th and 15th streets in Northwest Washington in an area known as "the stroll." All are white women in their 20s. All had blond or light-colored hair.
But for every similarity there also is a glaring difference.
Two of the women were shot in the head, two were shot in the chest, two others were asphyxiated and one died from a blow to the head. One of the women was found in the building where she lived, at least one was hidden in a sewer, while others appear to have been simply dumped in public places. Some of the women were thin, others were overweight.
"If it is the same [person], then the same MO [method of operation] is not being used," said one investigator involved in the case who asked not to be identified.
Still, the similarities must be given more weight than other facts at this early stage of the investigation, said another detective who did not want his name used.
"Regardless of whether they were shot, strangled or whatever, they are all prostitutes working out of the same area," he said.
Said another source, "I wish I could tell you definitely that it's not a serial killer. At this point, I just don't know."
The body discovered May 30 showed no obvious cause of death, sources said, leading authorities to speculate that the victim had been asphyxiated, as were the last two victims, whose bodies were discovered in Arlington, Va. An autopsy was conducted Friday, but results have not been announced.
Police have described the woman to downtown prostitutes, and they say she generally resembles a woman who worked there until recently.
Arlington County Board Chairman Albert C. Eisenberg said county residents should not be unduly alarmed by those killings, or the recent slaying of a woman paralegal on a bike path.
"Arlington is and will continue to be a safe and secure place," he said.
The investigation of the prostitutes' deaths has been complicated by the fact the bodies have been found in several jurisdictions.
Last week, police representatives from the District of Columbia, Arlington, Falls Church and Fairfax County met with Virginia State Police, the FBI and the U.S. Park Police to discuss the cases.
The meeting at the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy in Arlington is the latest in a series during recent months, in which investigators have updated one another and shared evidence in what one detective described as an attempt to "piece together a puzzle."
Police say the pieces of evidence and the circumstances point in many directions. Sources say that there could be one killer, seven or some number in between.
In one of the recent confirmed prostitute killings, the body of Sherry K. Larman, 26, was found May 27 atop a four-story garage in Arlington.
A day later and less than two miles away, the body of 20-year-old Sandra Rene Johnson was found in the Arlington apartment building where she lived.
Both apparently were smothered with a plastic bag, one source said.
Since the slayings, Arlington detectives have spent the last several evenings in the District of Columbia interviewing prostitutes, their customers, friends, pimps and acquaintances, and talking with store and restaurant employees in areas that Johnson and Larman were known to frequent, the source said.
Virginia State Police investigators are probing the death of Carolen Marie Wallace, 22, of Forestville, Md., whose body was found Feb. 14 stuffed in a storm sewer along Interstate 95 next to Telegraph Road. Wallace, apparently left in the storm sewer for several days, had been shot once in the head.
A little more than a month after Wallace's death, a pedestrian found the body of Lisa Colleen Grossman, 29, of Fairfax County, Va., lying beside a boating business in Alexandria's West End.
Grossman, found only a few miles northwest of where Wallace was discovered, died from a blow to the head. Alexandria police have declined to comment on whether they have any suspects.
The first body discovered in Washington was that of Mary Ellen Sullenberger, 20. Her body was found April 2, 1989, and she had been shot in the chest.
The second body found, on Aug. 12, was that of Cori Louise Jones, 29. She had been shot several times in the chest. Bullets from the gun that killed her, police say, matched those used to kill Roxanne Lynn Johnson, 23. Johnson, who was shot in the head, was found behind a District school on Oct. 1.
A District police source said that some investigators suspect that two people working as a team are involved in the D.C. slayings. The source would not say why.
Another area killing also being investigated is of a black woman whose bullet-riddled body was discovered May 9 on a residential street in Falls Church.
Falls Church police said the body, which remains unidentified, had apparently been taken to the location after the victim was killed. Police do not know whether the woman was a prostitute.
by CNB