The Forensic Nurse

A man who has been unofficially known as the “grim Sleeper” for the past twenty years has finally been arrested. The suspect, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., a 57 year old man from Los Angeles is alledged to have committed at least 11 unsolved murders dating back to 1985.

A judge has denied mr. Franklin bail. He will be arrained in a Los Angeles court in August 2010 on ten counts of murder and one count of attempted murder as of today.

The case has been very long and drawn out process spanning multiple decades. The break in the case finally came using DNA evidence. The DNA match was found using what is sometimes viewed a controverial tactic known as familial DNA Searching.

Everyone has their own unique DNA signature that specificly can be used to identify an individual, family members share enough common DNA markers to help identify family members as potential matches as well. 

In this case one of Mr. Franklins family has a previous unrelated conviction on a felony weapons charge. It has become standard procedure in many jurisdictions now to collect DNA samples on felony offenders.  Investigators were able to run a DNA sample found at a murder scene against the DNA database. a Partial hit was found on Mr. Franklins family member DNA sample.  Because it was only a partial match it ruled that individual out, but also was able to conclusively prove that a very close relative may have been involved in the murder, which drastically narrowed down the search.

The Grim Sleeper is suspected in at least 11 murders . He like most serial killers chose victims within his own ethnic profile, in this case targeting black women, some of which who worked as prostitutes. Prostitutes are often targets of serial killers because of the lower social profile. Friends and Families often don’t report the victim missing for longer periods of time allowing for more evidence to be lost during the critical hours after the murder.

Serveral years ago another arrest was made by police who claimed they had ballistic evidence for the murders, but that case did not lead to a conviction. Margaret Prescod, who founded the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders and worked with the families of victims in the case said that she is “cautiously optomistic” regarding this latest arrest.

Aerial footage was taken on Wednesday showing police searching cars in the garage of the suspect’s home in south Los Angeles.  The garage was not far from the corridor where the victims’ bodies were dumped.

The close proximity to the body dumping ground is another tell tale sign that the murderer may have personal and intimate knowledge of the area allowing him to elude detection for so many years. Serial killers often tend to be invisible to nearly everyone. Because they do not raise suspision they can lull people into trusting them, and allowing them to get victims to let their guard down, or be placed into vulnerable positions that they may not do with a person they feel uncomfortable with.