Suspected serial killer charged in 1977 cold case murders of 3 young women: Authorities

A suspected serial killer already in custody in North Carolina for a cold case murder has been charged in the slayings of three women who were strangled to death in 1977 in California, authorities said.

Kimberly Carol Fritz, 18, was killed in May 1977; Velvet Ann Sanchez, 31, was strangled to death in September 1977; and Lorraine Ann Rodriguez, 21, was killed three months later in December, according to authorities in Ventura County, California.

The victims were all sex workers who frequented local hotels, authorities said.

Police immediately believed the strangulations were linked, but the cases went cold, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said at a news conference Thursday.

In 2006, detectives uploaded DNA evidence collected from the scenes into CODIS -- the nationwide law enforcement DNA database -- but didn't find a match, Nasarenko said.

Last year, "a breakthrough emerged" when detectives again uploaded DNA to CODIS and found a match to 73-year-old Warren Luther Alexander, Nasarenko said.

Alexander's DNA was in the system because in 2022 he was arrested in North Carolina in connection with a 1992 cold case murder, Nasarenko said.

The North Carolina victim, 29-year-old Nona Cobb, was also strangled to death, Nasarenko said. Alexander is still awaiting prosecution in that case, authorities said.

Alexander was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and was extradited from North Carolina to California on Tuesday, authorities said.

"The day of reckoning in Ventura County has finally arrived," Nasarenko said.

Alexander made his first court appearance in Ventura County Superior Court and is being held in Ventura County Jail without bail, authorities said. His arraignment is set for Aug. 21.

Alexander lived in Ventura County in the late 1950s and 1960s and he returned there in the 1970s, Nasarenko said. He was a long-haul cross-country truck driver from the 1970s to the 1990s, Nasarenko said.

Nasarenko said authorities believe there are more victims and said investigators are working with the FBI to try to solve other cases.