Trash Bag Killer Faces 17 More Murder Counts

Homicide Complaint Against Patrick Kearney Is Largest Ever Filed in Los Angeles County
by Bill Farr

Al Sett and Roger Wilson, the two Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide detectives who gathered the evidence after it was decided that the prosecution would be consolidated, said they put the cases together mainly from information that Kearney himself provided. “We had conversations with Kearney and as a result of those talks, we filed these 17 counts.” Sett said, adding that he believed “this completely wraps up” the number of murders that can be charged against Kearney. Four of the 17 bodies reportedly were found discarded in large trash bags but neither the prosecutor nor the investigators would say which ones. At least three different .22-caliber weapons a rifle, a pistol and a derringer were used in the killings, according to information listed in the homicide complaint.

Breault and the detectives declined to discuss motives for the murders. Patrick Kearney, already serving a life term as the “trash bag murderer” of three young men in Riverside County, was charged here Wednesday with killing 17 others ranging in age from 5 to 28 years old. It was the largest number of homicides counts ever filed in Los Angeles County but nine of the alleged murders were cases from other Southern California jurisdictions. Dep. Dist. Ally. John Breault, who filed the multiple murder complaint here, said four of the bodies were found in Los Angeles County, four in San Diego County, two each in Orange and Imperial counties and one in Riverside County. Four of the victims’ bodies have not been found, Breault said.