Suspected serial killer Warren Luther Alexander, 73, of Mississippi will stand trial for three cold case murders committed in 1977, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
Alexander’s charges allege he strangled three women to death in Ventura County nearly 50 years ago.
In February 2023, detectives began re-examining the deaths of the murder victims identified as Kimberly Carol Fritz, Velvet Ann Sanchez and Lorraine Ann Rodriguez.
While the exact circumstances surrounding the women’s deaths were not disclosed by the DA, an article published in 1978 in the Utah publication The Daily Herald stated that the three women were prostitutes who were strangled with their own underwear.
Sanchez was 31 when she was found dead in an Oxnard motel on Sept. 9, 1977, the Daily Herald reported; the 18-year-old Fritz was found in a motel room on May 29 of that year and Rodriguez, then 22, was found dead near a highway in Oxnard on Dec. 27, but the Herald reported that investigators believed she was also killed at a motel and dumped there.
The LA Times wrote that detectives initially noticed patterns in how the women’s bodies were arranged, almost identically, in a reportedly degrading fashion. The article also shared that both Sanchez and Rodriguez were mothers, and Fritz had just finished high school.
In addition, the LA Times reported it was through modern DNA technology and data sharing that detectives in 2023 were able to connect Alexander to the unresolved murders.
In August 2024, Alexander was extradited to California from Surry County, North Carolina, where he was awaiting prosecution for a different cold case murder committed in 1992.
The 73-year-old pleaded not guilty at his Aug. 21 arraignment. However, on Oct. 18, a Ventura County judge decided to take it to trial after the three-day-long preliminary hearing.
The hearing called 13 witnesses including three DNA analysts, a fingerprint examiner and five witnesses from the original 1977 investigation.
Alexander is scheduled for an information arraignment on Nov. 1 at the Ventura County Superior Court. The DA’s office said he remains in county jail without bail.
