Authorities Tying “Homosexuals” to Series of “Trash Bag Murders”
by Riverside (AP)
A bloody hacksaw, a carpet and the hair of a pet dog have linked two roommates to at least 28 “trash bag murders,” police say. The items were listed in an affidavit filed by sheriff’s deputies that showed that physical evidence taken from the bodies of several murder victims matched items found in the home shared by David Hill and Patrick Kearney, both avowed homosexuals. The two Redondo Beach men were arraigned Tuesday on two counts each of murder. But Riverside County Sheriff Ben Clark said they might be tied to many more slayings that occurred over a seven-year period. “There are at least 28,” Clark said of the cases being linked to the pair. “There may be more.”
He said the estimate came from conversations with the two men, who are talking openly with authorities. Kearney, a former electronics technician at Hughes Aircraft Corp., led authorities to six alleged grave sites over the weekend. The sheriff’s affidavit indicated that Kearney, 37, and Hill, 34, were first suspected in the series of mysterious murders when a friend of theirs, John LaMay, was found dismembered last March 18. In an interview with authorities in April, Kearney and Hill said they both had had homosexual relationships with LaMay over a period of two years, the affidavit said.
During that visit, sheriff’s deputies obtained samples of dog hairs, carpeting and the men’s body hair, which eventually were matched with evidence found on the bodies of LaMay and other victims, the affidavit disclosed. At the men’s home, investigators found a hacksaw coated with dried blood that matched LaMay’s blood type, the documents showed. In May, when authorities were closing in, the affidavit said, the men wrote to Kearney’s grandmother in Barstow asking her to sell their house and pay their bills because they were going away. On May 26, Kearney mailed a letter of resignation and his security badge to Hughes Aircraft.
Authorities say that Hill and Kearney fled to El Paso, Texas, but were persuaded by their families to return and surrender. They walked into Clark’s office Friday, pointed at their wanted poster and declared, “We’re them.” Clark told a post-arraignment news conference that the men had been advised of their right to remain silent, but had continued to volunteer information about killings, which might reach a total larger than any known mass murder in American history. Previous cases on record include the killings of 25 migrant farm workers by Juan Corona and the murders of 27 teen-aged boys in Pasadena, Texas. Elmer Wayne Henley was found guilty of six of those murders.
The sheriff said the “trash bag murders” were linked by other similarities. All of the bodies were of nude young men; some were dismembered, and several were stuffed in plastic trash bags. They were found along highways stretching from Los Angeles to the Mexican border. Judge Philip LaRocca ordered the men held on $500,000 bail each and set July 15 for a plea hearing. The public defenders said he would represent Hill, who is unemployed.
